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Photos: about solar storm 2011

admin — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 00:08:13 +0000

A potential increase of solar activity could have destructive effects on Earth and it’s inhabitants, especially on people’s “modern life” The sun is about to get a lot more active, which could have negative effects on Earth. So to prepare, top sun scientists met Tuesday to discuss the best ways to protect Earth’s satellites and other vital systems from the coming solar storms.

It was recently reported in Yahoo News “The sun is about to get a lot more active, which could have ill effects on Earth. So to prepare, top sun scientists met Tuesday to discuss the best ways to protect Earth’s satellites and other vital systems from the coming solar storms…..People of the 21st century rely on high-tech systems for the basics of daily life. But smart power grids, GPS navigation, air tr avel, financial services and emergency radio communications can all be knocked out by intense solar activity….”

Nasty Solar Storms and Black-outs ahead

“The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity. At the same time, our technological society has developed an unprecedented sensitivity to solar storms. The intersection of these two issues is what we’re getting together to discuss.”

The National Academy of Sciences framed the problem two years ago in a landmark report entitled “Severe Space Weather Events—Societal and Economic Impacts.” It noted how people of the 21st-century rely on high-tech systems for the basics of daily life. Smart power grids, GPS navigation, air travel, financial services and emergency radio communications can all be knocked out by intense solar activity. A century-class solar storm, the Academy warned, could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina.

Much of the damage can be mitigated if managers know a storm is coming. Putting satellites in ’safe mode’ and disconnecting transformers can protect these assets from damaging electrical surges. Preventative action, however, requires accurate forecasting—a job that has been assigned to NOAA.

solar storm pictures

admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 00:25:44 +0000

Solar storm pictures or photos:

coronal mass ejections, solar flares, solar radiation, solar storms, Space, stars, sun

Through the photos to learn how solar storms work

admin — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:53:42 +0000

A geomagnetic storm is a temporary disturbance of the Earth’s magnetosphere caused by a disturbance in space weather. Associated with solar coronal mass ejections (CME), coronal holes, or solar flares, a geomagnetic storm is caused by a solar wind shock wave which typically strikes the Earth’s magnetic field 24 to 36 hours after the event. This only happens if the shock wave travels in a direction toward Earth. The solar wind pressure on the magnetosphere will increase or decrease depending on the Sun’s activity. These solar wind pressure changes modify the electric currents in the ionosphere. Magnetic storms usually last 24 to 48 hours, but some may last for many days. In 1989, an electromagnetic storm disrupted power throughout most of Quebec—it caused auroras as far south as Texas.

1. Sunspots
Sunspots form where intense magnetic field lines twist and poke up through the surface. These knotted fields shut down the normal flow, or convection, of hot plasma from the sun’s interior to the surface, making the region cooler and darker than its surroundings.

2. Field Lines
Sunspots explode when the field lines twist to the point of snapping, like a rubber band wound too tightly. They link up again to form a new shape, but not before releasing enormous amounts of stored energy and hot gas into the sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona.

3. Solar Flare
The resulting eruption, called a solar flare, heats the surrounding gas to 180 million degrees Fahrenheit. The explosion accelerates subatomic particles to near light-speed and spews radiation (mostly ultraviolet and gamma rays and x-rays) into space.

4. Plasma Burst
Flares are sometimes followed by coronal mass ejections (CMEs), in which billions of tons of the sun’s plasma are flung into space en masse. These huge bubbles of matter travel relatively slowly (1,000 miles a second); even the fastest ones take a day or so to reach Earth.

5. Earth Impact
Eight minutes after a flare erupts, Earth’s atmosphere absorbs the radiation pulse. This pulse produces extra ions and electrons, causing the atmosphere to puff out. The expanded atmosphere increases drag on satellites and degrades radio and GPS signals. But the worst is yet to come. Potentially more destructive than a flare’s radiation pulse, CMEs boost the speed of the solar wind and create a shockwave of energetic protons. That shockwave distorts Earth’s magnetic shield, and the protons stream down on the poles creating geomagnetic disturbances like the Northern Lights. The shockwave can also destroy the electronics in satellites.

What is a solar storm and 2012 solar storm warning?

admin — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 12:44:31 +0000

What is a solar storm?
A solar storm is a sudden burst of very fast charged particles from the Sun. It could be the result of a solar flare or a coronal mass ejection (CME) or both.

The sun is always belching globs of its inner self into space, but every 11 years or so, changes in our star’s magnetic field bring on an increase in sunspots, solar flares and events called coronal mass ejections. The result is a barrage of charged particles hurling toward Earth.
The peak in this cycle is called a “solar maximum” or “solar max.”

March 10, 2006: It’s official: Solar minimum has arrived. Sunspots have all but vanished. Solar flares are nonexistent. The sun is utterly quiet.

Like the quiet before a storm.

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.

That was a solar maximum. The Space Age was just beginning: Sputnik was launched in Oct. 1957 and Explorer 1 (the first US satellite) in Jan. 1958. In 1958 you couldn’t tell that a solar storm was underway by looking at the bars on your cell phone; cell phones didn’t exist. Even so, people knew something big was happening when Northern Lights were sighted three times in Mexico. A similar maximum now would be noticed by its effect on cell phones, GPS, weather satellites and many other modern technologies.
from:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/10mar_stormwarning.htm