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NASA Confirms Solar Storm Near 2012

An anonymous reader writes "`This week researchers announced that a storm is coming — the most intense solar maximum in fifty years. The prediction comes from a team led by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). "The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one," she says. If correct, the years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the historic Solar Max of 1958.`

`Dikpati's forecast puts Solar Max at 2012. Hathaway believes it will arrive sooner, in 2010 or 2011.`

Anyone familiar with the Mayan Calendar? December 21, 2012 (13.0.0.0.0 in the Mayan Calendar) Coincidence?"

25 of 344 comments (clear)

  1. Umm, old news? by Zarhan · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article is dated March 10, 2006.

    1. Re:Umm, old news? by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 5, Funny
      News goes in a cycle.

      This news will be repeated again and again, reaching DUPE MAX sometime just AFTER the SOLAR MAX predicted.

      It is not, however, a harbinger for the end of dupes.

      --
      This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
    2. Re:Umm, old news? by daeg · · Score: 4, Insightful

      As someone who used to work in news, I can tell you that is entirely false. After the event, there are even more stories that you can pull from an event than there were leading up to the event. For instance: Did the storm affect anything? Was it stronger than predicted? Why? Does it affect local animals at all? What about children? Was your child affected? Can we link to to increased teen suicide? Was it caused by aliens? Can we find someone that thinks it was aliens? Was the prediction wrong? Was it right? Was it both right and wrong? Are there any local experts that can weigh in on the subject? ...no? Can we make some experts?

      Local news was terrifying to say the least.

  2. Coincidence? by Skidge · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Anyone familiar with the Mayan Calendar? December 21, 2012 (13.0.0.0.0 in the Mayan Calendar) Coincidence?" Yes. Yes, it is.
  3. Re:Apocalypse? by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 5, Funny

    You're just jealous because you haven't spent the past several years building a sacred Mesoamerican ball court in your cornfield. If I build it they will come...

  4. Re:Oh nooo!!! by endianx · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not true at all! This is just proof that mans impact on the environment extends throughout the solar system. It wasn't enough for us to mess up our own planet, now we have caused solar warming as well!

  5. Coincidence by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Anyone familiar with the Mayan Calendar?
    Yes, I am familiar with the Tzolk'in Calendar.

    December 21, 2012 (13.0.0.0.0 in the Mayan Calendar) Coincidence?
    Yes, coincidence. I was first exposed to the-world-will-end-in-2012 when I read Graham's book Fingerprints of the Gods. I wasn't sold on his numerology.

    Let me break it down for you: the Mayans had a very advanced & complex calendar that took into account a lot of different cycles and even some of the most extraordinary hiccups that come with man's attempt at keeping track of time. For the Gregorian calendar, we have leap years except we skip one every four hundred years and even with that in place I think we lose a day every 8,000 years. And you will find that every model has some special issues.

    So, back to the Mayans, their measurements of days came in sets of 13, contrary to our sets of 7 days in a week. So the world is no more likely to end on 13.0.0.0.0 than it was on the new years even in year seven. Just because 13 was always the last number in their cycles just means that we start a new cycle. No cataclysmic event needed to mark it. The cycle simply repeats and they most likely go to 1.0.0.0.0 there's no such thing as overflow in their calendar.

    Fun hokey astrological implications? Yes. Cold hard scientific data pointing to the end of the world? No.
    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:Coincidence by painQuin · · Score: 5, Funny

      the ones you have to watch out for are the cultures whose calendars count down

      --
      A guilty conscience means at least you've got one.
    2. Re:Coincidence by Bacon+Bits · · Score: 4, Informative

      The Gregorian calendar has leap years as follows:
      Every year divisible by 4 is a leap year.
      Except when that year is also divisible by 100, in which case it is *not* a leap year.
      Except when that year is also divisible by 400, in which case it *is* a leap year.

      Hence 2000 was a leap year. 2100 will not be.

      The fun hokeyness is due to the Western assumption that everything is linear, in spite of the fact that we repeat months, days of months, and days of weeks constantly. We don't find it odd that there are thousands of Wednesdays or March 21sts, but somehow we can't understand there ever being more than one 2007.

      --
      The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
    3. Re:Coincidence by jrumney · · Score: 5, Funny

      but somehow we can't understand there ever being more than one 2007.

      There was another, 4014 years ago. What I can't figure out is how prehistoric man knew when Jesus was going to be born/die/be baptised or whatever event you believe led to the changeover, and how clever it was of him to count backwards.

  6. Anyone familiar with the Mayan Calendar? by Peter+Trepan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is it the one where all twelve are nude except for loincloths and headdresses?

    Um... no, I'm not familiar with it.

    --

    Step into a huge movement. Don't Tread In Me.

    1. Re:Anyone familiar with the Mayan Calendar? by Bandman · · Score: 5, Funny

      Was it a dream where you see yourself standing in sort of sun-god robes on a pyramid with a thousand naked women screaming and throwing little pickles at you?

      Why am I the only one who has that dream?

  7. Ham Radio operators know what to do! by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Get ready for those long-distance ham radio contacts when the ionosphere goes crazy, and conditions generally improve even when it's not crazy! And now that there's no more Morse Code test, we'll see a lot of people who were stuck on VHF before on the HF bands.

    Looking at auroras will be cool too. Be sure to reserve the left seat on US to Europe red-eye flights, I've seen amazing aurorae out that window, nothing that you could see from the ground.

    Bruce

  8. Sweet! by DoctorPepper · · Score: 4, Informative

    Looks like I need to really get to work on my Elecraft K1. With a solar maximum like they're predicting, QRP is going to be awesome!

    --

    No matter where you go... there you are.
  9. Re:Second to 1958 activity by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Funny
    It was 1958. The powerplants shut down because all the plant workers had to get home to beat their wives, listen to Elvis records, and oppress black people.

    It also probably didn't help that crazy scientists were sending lightening strikes directly into the power grid to help whiney punks get back to 1985.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  10. Just in time... by corpsmoderne · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... for the US elections

    "65535 votes for X in this voting machine??? errr! Must be the solar storm..."

  11. Climate Change Linked to Solar Activity by WED+Fan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This article from NASA JPL is very informative on the subject.

    The researchers found some clear links between the sun's activity and climate variations. The Nile water levels and aurora records had two somewhat regularly occurring variations in common - one with a period of about 88 years and the second with a period of about 200 years.

    I think we need to take a look at the hysteria. It is turn our attention away from what we can do to better this planet. And, the idea of carbon offsets just makes people feel better for their polution levels.

    Global Warming has become the new Medieval Church and anyone who does not walk a precise line on the message faces the New Inquisition.

    We do need to live more green, more clean, and more simple. But, the public won't buy off on that message if we keep tying it to the Holy Church of Global Warming Hysteria. If we can show more immediate effects of living green and clean the public will follow.

    We need to separate those whose real agenda is socio-economic change from the environmental argument. They aren't really interested in the environment, anyway. We need to remove the scammers, like the "carbon offset" (unregulated, uncertified, non-verifiable) companies to improve public perception.

    We need to substitue Ed Beagley Jr. for Al Gore. Ed lives, breathes, talks, and walks the environment. Al Gore, while talking about it, still jets around the world, when he could use his own invention, the Internet, to show up at appearances, he maintains a house in Tennessee that uses 20 times the amount of energy as his neighbors, he is a glutton who preaches about the wonders of a diet.

    --
    Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
  12. next slashdot poll by way2trivial · · Score: 4, Funny

    which do yuo prefer to look at

    aurorae/auroras

    or

    areolas?

    --
    every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
  13. Re:Oh nooo!!! by saider · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Of course, if Christianity is wrong, then all bets are off and maybe the Mayans do know when Jesus is coming. But then we have a Paradox.

    The mayans do not know of Jesus, therefore no paradox.

    Possibility Matrix.
    0-Both are right - Mayans without knowledge of Jesus predict the end of the world. Christians predict the end of the world, which includes Jesus v2.0.
    1-Christians right, Mayans wrong - Lots of "I told you so"s bantered about.
    2-Christians wrong, Mayans right - Fewer "I told you so"s bantered about.
    3-Both wrong - Life goes on as normal and some people begin to realize that prophecy is inherently unreliable.

    Another possibility is that people cause the end of the world themselves and spin that as their prophecy coming true.

    --


    Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
  14. Remember Galaxy 4? by Pontiac · · Score: 5, Informative

    Funny how people forget..

    When Galaxy 4 died it took out 80% of the pagers in the US plus several video feeds used by the major networks (I worked for CBS at the time)

    This was 2 years before the 2000 Solar max when solar activity was ramping up.
    More storms in 2003 took out power in parts of Switzerland and killed 2 Satellites

    There were several solar flare warnings around that time.

    http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast14jul_2 m.htm

    July 14, 2000 -- This morning NOAA satellites and the orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) recorded one of the most powerful solar flares of the current solar cycle. Space weather forecasters had been predicting for days that an intense flare might erupt from the large sunspot group 9077, and today one did.

    http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/power_outage _031031.html

    The sixth in an unprecedented series of strong space storms dished out by the Sun over a 10-day period plowed past Earth Thursday, apparently cutting power to 20,000 Swedish customers. The powerful series of outbursts also claimed two satellites as casualties while fueling a host of minor disruptions to radio broadcasts and airline flight plans.

    http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/articles/eisbaker.html

    A very intense flux of electrons, evident in the magnetosphere earlier this year, may have caused a satellite failure (or at least exacerbated the situation) leading to the loss of telephone pager service to 45 million customers, research has shown. The electrons, known as highly relativistic electrons (HREs), were especially numerous in the weeks preceding the failure. Researchers say HREs have triggered spacecraft anomalies in the past when fluxes are elevated. They therefore believe this energetic electron event could have been behind the failure of the attitude control system of the Galaxy 4 spacecraft at 2200 UT on May 19, 1998. A backup system also failed, either at the same time or earlier, so operators were unable to maintain a stable Earth link.

    Galaxy 4 is a heavily used communication satellite at geostationary orbit*. Its sudden failure caused not only widespread loss of pager service but also numerous other communication outages. Using a wide array of datasets, our team of scientists analyzed the space environment for the times in question and found evidence of highly disturbed solar, solar wind*, and geomagnetic conditions in late April and early May. The combination of coronal mass ejections*, solar flares*, and high speed solar wind streams led to a powerful sequence of interplanetary disturbances that hit the Earth. These disturbances produced a deep, powerful, and long-lasting enhancement of the HRE population throughout the outer Van Allen radiation zone. The kinds of disturbances witnessed are indicative of the types of events that may commonly occur during the approaching peak in solar activity in the years 2000 and 2001. It will be most important to determine how well space systems can stand up to the multifaceted effects of the space environment over the next several years.


    http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/ cell_phone_020306.html

    Next time your cell phone drops acall, don't rush to blame your service provider. The culprit may well be anangry Sun.

    A new study of 40 years of solardata shows that during peaks in activity, bursts of energy from the Sun canpotentially cause dropped calls for some cell phone users across wide areastwice per week. The problem is caused when radio waves associated with thebursts hit cell phone towers, creating static that overwhelms the signal at thetower, where calls are relayed.

    T

    --
    If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur. --Red Adair
  15. Re:Oh nooo!!! by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 4, Funny

    Not true at all! This is just proof that mans impact on the environment extends throughout the solar system. It wasn't enough for us to mess up our own planet, now we have caused solar warming as well!

    "Man's impact"? Um, I think you mean "George W. Bush's impact". If he'd just sign Kyoto, the sun would instantly return to normal.

  16. Re:Oh nooo!!! by Chysn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    > The United Nations found that there is more Methane produced from livestock, which raises global temperature greater than CO2 by a factor of
    > approx. 20, than any human caused CO2 combined

    You don't consider the cultivation of livestock a human activity? Seriously?

    --
    --I'm so big, my sig has its own sig.
    -- See?
  17. Metanotice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Before modding this guy up you might want to see his previous templated posts and refutations:

    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=221906&cid=179 81692
    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=227015&cid=183 90093
    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=225014&cid=182 30822
    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=220006&cid=178 42262

    I wonder how much he's getting paid to do this...or if he's really as demented as his posts seem to imply.

  18. Re:Oh nooo!!! by Theaetetus · · Score: 4, Informative

    3.) Mars is experiencing the same climate change that Earth is. (source: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/ [space.com] mars_snow_011206-1.html and http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/new s/news.html?in_article_id=410901&in_page_id=1770 [dailymail.co.uk]) How can you explain the recent same climate changes on different planets? I doubt it's all those cars being driven there.

    Debunked almost two years ago. Sheesh.
  19. Bullshit alert. by SETIGuy · · Score: 4, Informative

    1.) Apparently, the Earth magnetic field has decreased by 10% in the last 150 years (source: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/earth_magnet ic_031212.html). I'm an electrical engineer and during my studies in particle physics, I learned that a particles velocity can be affected by magnetic fields. I believe it's possible that more of the Sun's radiation is penetrating the Earth's magnetosphere ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_magnetic_fiel d ) due to it being weaker. If more radiation hits the Earth, shouldn't that also increase the overall temperature of the Earth and can global warming be attributed to this?

    No. The total energy of charged particles impacting the upper atmosphere is tiny compared with the solar light energy Compare for example, the intensity of the aurora with the intensity of sunlight. Now add in the fact that the aurora covers a tiny fraction of the earths surface while sunlight blankets half of the earth at any time.

    Even if it were a significant amount of energy, this energy is entirely absorbed by the atmosphere at altitudes above 60km. You would need to come up with a plausible mechanism for transporting this radiation down into the lower atmosphere without increasing the temperature of the stratosphere.

    2.) Jupitor is experiencing the same climate change that Earth is.

    No, it isn't. The change on Jupiter is regional, not global. There is no indication that it is related to any solar phenomenon.

    3.) Mars is experiencing the same climate change that Earth is.
    No, it isn't. Mars is losing CO2 ice near its South Pole. The most likely explanation is that large dust storms from recent years dumped some dust on the ice causing it to absorb sunlight and sublime. This sublimation may cause warming by increasing the CO2 and H2O content of the Martian atmosphere. This might feedback into causing more ice to evaporate. Since there isn't an active carbonate silicate cycle on Mars due to lack of liquid water, there is nothing to prevent this from occurring. So it's likely that the Martian climate experiences warming of this type in a cyclical manner, and that the warming will continue until something else stops it. For example the reduction in the temperature difference between the poles and the equatorial regions might slow the winds enough that the dust storms stop allowing increased precipitaion of CO2 onto the poles. There is no equivalent mechanism at work on Earth.

    4.) The United Nations found that there is more Methane produced from livestock, which raises global temperature greater than CO2 by a factor of approx. 20
    However the residence time of CO2 in the atmosphere is more than 20 times longer than the residence time of methane.

    [5.) What about the ice ages. We didn't cause them!]
    But wait officer, there were forest fires before there were people. Therefore it couldn't have been my campfire that started it.

    But wait officer, people can die without being murdered. Therefore it doesn't matter whether my fingerprints are on the gun.

    [A pile of other pointless crap designed to confuse the issues deleted.]
    Point 1 you could have gotten wrong just because you don't know anything about atmospheric science. The rest just puts you in the denial camp. Drop the political agenda for a while and see reality.