Sun Releases Largest Radiation Storm in 15 Years

what_the_frell writes "Newscientist is reporting that a large cluster of sunspots has just released huge amounts of radiation toward Earth. The crew of the ISS reportedly had to move into the bulkier Russian section of the station, while airlines rerouted planes away from the most affected regions. Look forward to varying degrees of radio & cell phone reception and some pretty cool aurora boreali until January 22, when the sunspot storm turns away from the earth, pointing its radiation elsewhere."

Comments

I saw this sunspot last week

[GreatDrok]

I was driving down to Newcastle from Edinburgh last week (15th) wearing my usual dark glasses and there was low cloud which meant I could see the sun's disc without it blinding me. There, right in the centre, a little above the mid point, was a huge spot. I told my wife to look at it too as I thought it was interesting to see a sunspot so clearly without any visual aids other than dark glasses and some cloud. Man, that thing is big......

Satellites lost...

[Exocet]

Didn't Intelsat just recently lose a satellite? Like, just the other day? I saw some slashdot'ers speculating on various causes (metal whiskers were my favourite) but perhaps sunspot activity had something to do with it?

Admittedly, they lost it on the 14th, so perhaps this is a tenuous grasp at best.

Intelsat Loses Another Satellite