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Yet Another Big Solar Flare
philthedrill writes "CNN is reporting that the sun has fired another large solar flare towards Earth. This one could arrive as early as Thursday (Oct. 30th) afternoon. (insert end-of-the-world statement here)."
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Who Cares. I mean after awhile this becomes so boring. Jesus can't we pick on SCO today.
pumping our sun to supernova so they can power their lightsails to the next star system.
Phoenix
"I have not seen anything like it in my entire career as a solar physicist. The probability of this happening is so low that it is a statistical anomaly."
You know, 'statistical anomaly' is NOT what I want to hear from solar physicists about my particular sun.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Well, will tinfoil hats protect us from onslaught of solar flares? i have a whole stockpile.. $5.99 a piece, message me for details!
Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
a kid in rural Kansas is accidentally throwing a tractor a half mile from his farm.
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
It's a pity that more people don't get to view these phenomena, because of modern light pollution. How many people are losing awe-inspiring sights, such as this and the milky-way?
((lambda x ((x))) (lambda x ((x))))
Pun intended.
:-)
This could shape up to be a really amazing Halloween. For some reason, that 80's movie about Halley's comet's tail intersecting the earth and making zombies out of everyone that wasn't in a lead-lined room comes to mind. I, for one, will welcome our new zombie overlord masters.
1. 2.
From the article:
Space weather forecasters say this spate of strong solar flares is not consistent with normal solar behavior. The sun, which follows an 11-year activity cycle, has been quieting down since the last peak in 2000.
Although we humans have been looking at the sun since before we climbed out of the trees (and our moms have been telling us not to even longer), it's almost silly to say that any observation of our local star is "not consistent with normal solar behavior." Just how many of those 11-year cycles have been recorded?
If the ancient Chinese were using pinhole solar viewers to count sunspots for the past 5000 years, that would be one thing. But as has been posted in every Slashdot story on the subject, we have maybe 200 years of scientific data (of varying quality) out of the sun's five billion year history. Even W's pollsters would tell you that sample size is too small.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
I've coated the whole motherboard with SPF-50 sunblock. Ain't none of that darn sun radiation gonna get my computer.
If anyone needs me I'll be out back holding my hotdog-on-a-stick up real high...
p.s. Anyone else smell coconut burning?
Best headline I saw on these was on MSNBC Wednesday. My wife told me about it, but I went and confirmed myself:
Space Storm hits; Earth Survives
Which, of course, is amazing news and you certainly wouldn't have known if the alternative had occurred.
I'd provide a link, but like most of the online news outlets they readily change story headlines and content throughout the day. It's completely different now and talks about the current state and the upcoming flare output tomorrow (Friday).
The Ultimate Slashdotting.
End of Line.
I heard on NPR last night that an X class CME has the effect of about "10 dental X-rays" on folks flying in airplanes over the poles. I guess the magnetic field lines make the poles the most vulnerable area, and at higher altitudes there is less atmosphere for protection.
The peak in the current cycle was a few years back....see the NOAA's SolarCycle page Considering it's an 11 year cycle, we are supposed to be on the downswing right now....also, don't forget that we're now at two major storms in the last few days, emmenating from two massive (and still growing) sunspots on the surface of the sun...so, I would call this something extraordinary.
When I read this line, "I have not seen anything like it in my entire career as a solar physicist. The probability of this happening is so low that it is a statistical anomaly.", I cringed. Either a) This guy thinks his model is great & really believes that this is a 1/1,000,000,000 event, or b) he knows that this indicates a whole in his model, but the reporter ripped the quote out of context to make the story more sensational.
A little statistics primer is in order. In order to quote odds on anything, a statistician needs a model, generally based on existing data. When there is an event that's off the charts, it will usually indicate to the scientist (or engineer) that there is a deficiency in their model (or their process is out of control, for manufacturing types). If I were a solas scientist, this event would indicate to me that the model is not adequate for predicting this sort of thing. Which makes sense, since we probably only have 40 years worth of data; you expect to be thrown a curve-ball every now and then.
So I doubt it really is a statistical anomanly; maybe these solar-flare pairs occur every 50 years or so & that's why we haven't seen it before. But either the reporter needs to better explain the meaning of the quote, or the quotee needs to take a basic course on the limits of statistical probability.
It was cloudy and raining when I posted the last time.
However it cleared up by evening. I was working late keeping an eye on the Real-Time Aurora Map which was looking pretty quiet when all of a sudden almost the entire northern hemisphere is coverd in a big red circle.
Went outside and sure enough, the Northern sky is aglow in blue and red.
Very cool.
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
Sun delivers yet another shot at Earth
In other news, President George W. Bush as extended the Axis of Evil to include the Sun. "This supposed ally has been flexing its nucular [sic] muscles without U.N. oversight for generations. While small infractions can be overlooked, a direct strike at the U.S. will not be ignored."
One interesting effect from the fires in California (specifically San Diego) is that the smoke has made it very easy to view the sun. Since the smoke has been so dense, the sun has appeared as this rich red-orange disc in the sky, with little dark dots on it where the solar flares are. I wish I had taken a picture, but I'm sure somebody can dig one up on google.
According to the BBC, magnetic north varied by 5 degrees in 25mins starting from 0830 GMT, as the storm swept passed us.
lets burn down the observatory so that this never happens again!
Does this mean I should repent for my sins, or do a lot of sinning while there's still time?
Things that make you go "Hmmm..."
"Why do I suddenly feel like making backups of all my important data..."
Yeah I backed up my porn collection too.
"Derp de derp."