Slashdot Mirror
Recent Solar Flare Could Disrupt Communications
w98 writes "CNN has reported that the 4th largest solar flare in the last 15 years may disrupt communications. "Significant solar eruptions are possible in the coming days and there could be disruptions in spacecraft operations, electric power systems, high frequency communications and low-frequency navigation systems," says the article."
Here you go.
MDI just showed a spot ... I have no idea why CNN thought that was a good picture.
EIT's in the middle of a bakeout, so you'll want to take a look at the SOHO/LASCO images, or GOES/SXI
See the NASA press release for more info.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
NOAA also has an article, with pictures and a movie, too.
"No fair, you changed the outcome by measuring it!" - Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth
If you were on the spaceweather.com mailing list... You would know that the CME was from the sun's eastern limb and unlikely to produce aurora borealis for you to see (since you're at 56N), but since its an extremely active sunspot it could produce ejections in a few days that will hit the earth delivering some good auroras to watch.
Not only the 4th largest in the last 15 years, but also the 5th largest in the last 30 years, which is from the beginning of measurements in 1976:
. html
http://www.spaceweather.com/solarflares/topflares
There have also been reports, that the 10cm radio flux with 27000 sfu has been even greater, than that of the 04/11/03 event.
--- censored
BOFHs everywhere rejoice!
-Peter
Does anyone remember in the IMAX documentary Solarmax where a super solar flare is mentioned? If I remember correctly, a super-duper solar flare is long overdue, and it has the potential of wiping out our entire satellite fleet. Also, here you can find a more detailed account of the recent solar flare than the AP article that appears on CNN: http://space.com/scienceastronomy/050908_solar_fla re.html
According to spaceweather.com, the sun spot that trigged this flare just became visible after transiting the far side of the sun for the past two weeks. Explosions later this week and next could produce some lovely September auroras.
A couple of points to keep in mind, however ...
* the active region will be on the disk for a couple of weeks and will most likely continue being very active.
* CME's can range in speed and have a delayed effect on the geomagnetic field. Granted, emissions at that point on the disk may not be well positioned for effect, there can be considerable delay in generating storm conditions. It can take many hours - it's a long way.
The little guy just ain't getting it, is he?
We still use LORAN when we go deep sea fishing. It seems that the LORAN gets you a bit closer to where you really want to be and where the fish are biting than the GPS. This is in all likelihood do to the old GPS units, and that all of the LORAN->GPS numbers for the canyons were done while the signal was still scrambled. I'd imagine most of the LORAN numbers are probably 500 feet closer than the GPS numbers that we have recorded. Having said that, it is just as likely that it is just a case of paranoia, not to uncommon with fishing.
You don't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer. - Winston Churchill
Loran (90-110 khz) is still operational, but if you want real low frequency navigation, you want Omega (10-14 khz). Omega ceased operations in 1997, but while operational its signals had a wavelength of around 25 kilometers, and were transmitted by 8 stations scattered across the globe. By receiving signals from three stations, am Omega receiver could locate a position to within 4 nm using the principle of phase comparison of signals. This made Loran-C (accuracy better than .25 nm) look damn accurate in comparison. These shortcoming aside, it was the first worldwide radio-navigation system.
We also know that the 17th century observations of the sun showed very few spots, whereas today spots are quite numerous. That's another variability.
Finally, several scientific papers suggest that solar activity variations have a major effect on the climate, much higher than was previously thought. There is a 208-year cycle that generated drought in South America during recent history, and these solar-forced droughts killed the Maya empire among other victims.
References: "A Variable Sun and the Maya Collapse", Kerr, Science, Vol 292, Issue 5520, 1293 , 18 May 2001 and Solar Forcing of Drought Frequency in the Maya Lowlands, Hodell, Science, Vol 292, Issue 5520, 1367-1370 , 18 May 2001.
So the sun most probably holds the key to long-term climate changes. We need more studies, because obviously, after a few decades of space observations, we don't know enough about cycles that last centuries.
--
Mad science! Robots! Underwear! Cute girls! Full comic online! http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/
Solar flares/sun spot activity fluctuate on a roughly 11 year cycle - it never completely dies down and is always better and worse than it was in previous years [depending on what part of the cycle is 'the good old days' to you].
It is sort of like the crap that comes out of Jesse Jackson's mouth - its always something ignorant, but once in a while its just over the top...
I have four gkrellkam panels, one for watching sunspots, another for coronal holes (currently in "bake-out"), another for the auroral oval and the above one. The links for those images are:
sunspots
coronal holes
Auroral oval (replace "pmapS.gif" to "pmapN.gif" for the northern hemisphere)
Take a look to the SOHO website (lastest images->near realtime images) for more images... sadly the SOHO now is in a kind of blind point, so many of them are marked as "CCD Bakeout". Maybe it will be back online in a few weeks.
Of course you can use gkrellkam for a lot of other purposes, like getting weather satellite images... oh, and getting images from a ordinary webcam ;)
hmm, maybe he meant nautical miles. :-)
that'd be more consistent with the technology involved.
(stupid non-standard units. insert NASA-inches/millimeters joke here.)