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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."
This ought to provide a good excuse for various network problems for a few weeks.... ^_^
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
The same process that creates Coronal Mass Ejections will finally free humanity from the constraints of energy dependency! Charles Cagle, friend to everyone on sci.physics and sci.physics.fusion has created an unlimited energy supply patterned after CMEs.
But beware: you must never show disdain for the New and Apocalypic Physics! Disbelievers will be CONSUMED by the fires of the sun in a mighty CME that will lay waste to those who do not follow Brother Charley!
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
...only one thing - invasion.
from the looks of the picture on CNN's site, we're well and truly screwed.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Cue a bunch of slashdot posts with people getting cut off in the mid...##KR2F@F@$F$ {NO CARRIER}
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This isn't the sig you're looking for. Move along.
What's the chance of seeing them?
I live on 56N12E
Any sufficiently advanced libertarian utopia is indistinguishable from government.
Power outage? Communication disruption? On CNN?
Hey, I'm surprised they haven't used the T word yet =)
You are more than the sum of what you consume. Desire is not an occupation.
Here you go.
Damn that global warming! Now it's screwing up the sun!
So these flares cause electromagnetic activity that occurs pretty quickly. According to the cnn.com article, their source was NOAA's Space Environment Center, and they handily included a link to said department.
According to the information at NOAA, the effects from this event will end by the morning of Sept 8. In other words, it's all over now, if you wanted to prepare.
Now, along with these often comes CME (coronal mass ejections), but this event wasn't facing Earth, so there won't be any of that material heading our way.
I have to ask what good it does for CNN to post this information as though it is an alert to prepare, rather than as an after-the-fact notice?
NOAA also has an article, with pictures and a movie, too.
"No fair, you changed the outcome by measuring it!" - Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth
This led to the coolest desktop picture ever (2400x2400, about 1 meg, be sure to wear sunglasses).
Cool quote FTA: "Luckily, the flare was not aimed directly towards Earth!"
I'm not positive, but I believe they're referring to ADF beacons, which are not used very much these days, except to confirm VHF beacons, and ADF technology is not terribly reliable (receivers can be fooled by lightning, for example.) Pilots are told to listen to the received audio carrier (which I believe contains a morse code sequence) to make sure they have a valid signal.
Given that GPS was relatively popular in planes even 15 years ago (before they had ILS-certified GPS systems, so GPS has only become more popular) I can't see this being a problem except for some parts of the general aviation community which haven't chosen to install GPS panel-mount units or at least buy a handheld unit.
I suppose they could also be referring to LORAN/LORAN-C (used mostly by boats, save during WW2), but...jesus christ, I hope nobody's still relying on LORAN...maybe as a backup to GPS, sure...but...yikes.
Please help metamoderate.
Here is another rather awe-inspiring picture from Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Lab.
Sig cancelled due to lack of interest
Who are the jedi?
The looters?
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
In related news, oil jumped $5.50 a barrel today on speculation that the disruption to cell phones, caused by the flairs, would prevent people from checking GasBuddy.com as they drive around town looking for who has the cheapest gas. Congress is expected to wave its arms in helpless frustration, shouting out "Oh, look, An Eagle!"
Ryosen
One man's "Troll, +1" is another man's "Insightful, +1".
Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Mayor: What do you mean, "biblical"?
Ray: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath-of-God type stuff.
Venkman: Exactly.
Ray: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies. Rivers and seas boiling.
Egon: Forty years of darkness. Earthquakes, volcanoes...
Winston: The dead rising from the grave.
Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria!
- Just my $0.02, take with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary.
Yes because I'm sure that Bush really could have reversed decades of environmental damage caused by previous administrations in a matter of 5 years.
The point to my comment was that, regardless of the circumstances surrounding an event in the history of an Administration, it is *always* the responsibility of the sitting President to respond to a disaster. Whether the disaster was worse because of some problems from a previous Administration is irrelevant to the people who are suffering through it. The fact is that you take the job of President to accept responsibility, not dodge it.
And I don't engage in debates of Democrats are worse than Republicans because I find them both to be two sides of the same bad penny. Bush is the President and has been for four years. Any attempt to dodge responsibility for anything that happens on his watch is just political grandstanding. It *is* his responsibility. The fact that Republicans have been preaching to the rest of America about taking personal responsibility for their actions makes his attempt to dodge it now all the more hypocritical.
This is assuming that global warming even "caused" Katrina in the first place, which is doubtful.
What caused you to come to the conclusion that it is doubtful that Katrina is caused by global warming?
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
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.
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Mad science! Robots! Underwear! Cute girls! Full comic online! http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/
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 ;)