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Friday's Solar Flare Twice As Energetic As Monday's; Earth Safe
The Bad Astronomer writes "The sunspot cluster that erupted in a solar flare and coronal mass ejection last Monday burst into life again on Friday, blasting out an X2 class solar flare, twice as energetic as the last one. This one was on the Sun's limb and was pointed away from us, so we're in no danger; all we got was a very minor radiation storm that's on the lowest ranking of such things. But it did put on quite a light show, which you can see in a video created with images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory."
We havenâ(TM)t seen much of an effect from this flare â" just a minor radiation storm thatâ(TM)s at the lowest end of the scale, nothing to worry about
Somebody you do not know talking to you about an event that is not your specialty. When do doctors, lawyers, bankers, physicians, counselors, and especially managers at work use the line "nothing to worry about"?
the NPG electrode was replaced with carbon blac
Everyone knows that the truly dangerous solar flare will happen in December. :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
the word "limb" has alternative definitions than the usual use of "branch of tree" or "member of animal's body other than head or trunk". These alternatives come from Latin "limbus", meaning border. In astronomy, the definition is "The circumferential edge of the apparent disk of a celestial body." There is a related definition in mathematics: "The edge of a graduated arc or circle used in an instrument to measure angles" --http://www.thefreedictionary.com/limb
Sometimes there is satellite damage from X2 flare, though the things are supposed to be designed to withstand them. More likely effects are communication disruptions. Last year, February 2011, Earth was hit with X2. We mostly survived 8D
We do. in addition to SDO, in inclined geosync orbit, we have two spacecraft in heliocentric orbits somewhat ahead of and somewhat behind the Earth. They're called STEREO.
http://stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/where.shtml
- Morty [Posting AC because I've spent mod points.]
Which would YOU rather read about, Solar Flares going nowhere, or the results of another Republican Debate?
As a n00b to ham radio, and only a Technician Class (don't even have my callsign yet, just tested today), I look forward to doing some DXing in the 6 meter band. The preferred band for international DX is usually 20 meters, but solar storms that actually hit us tend to push the maximum usable frequency for skywave propagation upward in frequency (downward in wavelength). I've been hearing of people making 2000 mile contacts at 6 meters with 5 watts in the conditions from the last flare. Since I'm not licensed for the HF bands (I may soon go for the upgrade to General Class but I still won't have any HF gear), but DO currently have the ability to operate in the 6 meter band, I will have to wait for the right moment to try to reach out and QSL someone.
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
And NASA and ESA are working on two more, but my understanding is that they won't be as coordinated like STEREO (they'll be rotating around the sun faster, so they won't necessarily get the 100% coverage that we currently get with STEREO):
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/sunearthsystem/main/solarprobeplus.html
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=45
(disclaimer: I work for the STEREO Science Center)
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.