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NASA's Earth Observatory Shows Solar Flare

Posted by timothy on from the and-the-hair-on-your-chinny-chin-chin dept.

staaktdenarbeid writes "In the past few months I became very impressed with the timeliness and quality of NASA's Earth Observatory. When hurricane Isabel struck, their imagery showed me the biggest latte ever made. Now that Southern California is on fire, it takes only a look from outer space to see how bad the sitation really is. And, today, a massive solar flare showed up on their website as soon as it errupted (so to speak). Each of these pictures is accompanied by detailed technical background. And for the rest of us, they also make perfect screen backgrounds. Very cool."

3 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. I wish .... by Argofickyusilf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    that the public could realise how useful NASA is. If they could see the services that they offer, maybe it would be "politically correct" for Congrees to give them the funding that they need.

  2. Before and after pictures of So. Cal. fires by adambehnke · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You can see a pretty cool before picture (note, by before, I mean _yesterday_)...

    Before

    And now, check out the after (today):

    After

  3. Physics of Flare-Induced Power Outages by rjthomas61 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Article on solar flares and power outages.

    "If (when) this flow of charged particles and embedded magnetic field collides with the Earth, it dramatically disrupts Earth's geomagnetic field and ionosphere, changing the terrestrial magnetic fields, and therefore causing currents to flow in the upper ionosphere, ...in the earth itself, and in long distance conductors. The interaction of the [Coronal Mass Ejection] with the Earth is referred to as a geomagnetic storm."

    "This current can cause saturation of the large power transformers at either end of the transmission line, creating a host of undesirable effects. ... Typical undesirable effects range from voltage regulation difficulties, to highly nonlinear sinusoidal primary and secondary currents, resulting in circuit breaker tripping; to creation of local hot spots within the transformer, resulting in transformer failure. ... The effects of [Geomagnetically Induced Currents] were dramatically demonstrated during March 1989, when GIC caused a cascading failure in the Quebec Power system, putting nearly nine million customers in the dark, in less than 90 seconds."

    (Note that this first page is a direct link to a frame, the second through sixth frames are accessible by the "next" tags in the right-hand corners.)

    --
    Take off, every Hoser