Solar Flare

[CG6468]

Sun Unleashes 'Spectacular' & Powerful Eruption

The sun unleashed a massive solar storm today (June 7) in a dazzling eruption that kicked up a vast cloud of magnetic plasma that appeared to rain back down over half of the sun's entire surface, NASA scientists say.

The solar storm hit its peak at about 2:41 a.m. EDT (0641 GMT), but the actual flare extended over a three-hour period, said C. Alex Young, a solar astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center who runs a website called The Sun Today, in a video describing the event.

"The sun produced a quite spectacular prominence eruption that had a solar flare and high-energy particles associated with it, but I've just never seen material released like this before," Young said. "It looks like somebody just kicked a giant clod of dirt into the air and then it fell back down."

(snip)

The coronal mass ejection is directed at Earth and moving at about 3.1 million mph (5 million kph), SDO mission scientists said in a statement.

"Due to its angle, however, effects on Earth should be fairly small. Nevertheless, it may generate space weather effects here on Earth in a few days," they added.

LINK: KaBOOM!

[Wineslob]

The responses on the page are priceless!   

[LC EFA]

I wonder just how hardened our telecommunications systems are against a large scale solar flare.

Especially given the degree to which daily life depends on electronics and telecommunication.

[thundley4]

I wonder just how hardened our telecommunications systems are against a large scale solar flare.

Especially given the degree to which daily life depends on electronics and telecommunication.

Some sciency type guy was on Fox talking about this and they said something about the sun flipping magnetic poles either at the end of 2012 or early 2013 and solar flares would get much worse.

Hm, the end of 2012, like December?  Why does that sound familiar?

[Wineslob]

I wonder just how hardened our telecommunications systems are against a large scale solar flare.

Especially given the degree to which daily life depends on electronics and telecommunication.

(too lazy to look it up) but I don't think you can "harden" anything with a bad flare.

[Thor]

I wonder just how hardened our telecommunications systems are against a large scale solar flare.

Especially given the degree to which daily life depends on electronics and telecommunication.

LC, you should know as well as anybody, they're NOT!! (Except for military stuff)

[CG6468]

Hm, the end of 2012, like December?  Why does that sound familiar?

Like 12/21/2021?

[CG6468]

LC, you should know as well as anybody, they're NOT!! (Except for military stuff)

I doubt the military stuff is ready, either.

What the hell could they do? It'd be a brand new phenomenon for all of earth.

[TVDOC]

LC, you should know as well as anybody, they're NOT!! (Except for military stuff)

Actually they are.......they are just too damn expensive not to be hardened.  The spec used to be 2 X the maximum (multi-component) radiation and EMP levels recorded since measurements were started (about 1962).  Typically the effects that will be manifested on communications are the result of solar emissions interrupting the path (the signal form the satellite to ground, and vice-versa)......instead of damaging the device itself.

Not to say that it's not possible, just that if there is a flare that large, satellite communications will be the least of our worries.........

doc

[LC EFA]

LC, you should know as well as anybody, they're NOT!! (Except for military stuff)

There are several systems where important if not critical military traffic co-habits with civilian stuff - Iridium and INMARSAT for example.

The problem isn't, as DOC noted the birds in orbit but rather the ability for us to uplink and downlink data to them.

I was more wondering what effects would be dealt to cell tower and microwave terrestrial data systems in the case of a major flare. IIRC -  HF radio is fairly susceptible to interference from flares and was wondering how the shorter wavelength frequencies would fare.

[DumbAss Tanker]

What Doc said.  Tactical military electronics, especially stuff made from the 80s onward, is pretty damn tight on EMP, and a solar flare that can outdo a high-altitude thermonuke on EMP-induced currents in electronics would cause a damn' sight more problems than just melting down all the copper long lines and frying integrated circuits.

[Doc]

A bit of general info:

Overview of Solar Flares

A solar flare is an enormous explosion in the solar atmosphere, involving sudden bursts of particle acceleration, plasma heating, and bulk mass motion. It is believed to result from the sudden release of energy stored in the magnetic fields that thread the solar corona in active regions around sunspots. In the largest flares, 1032 ergs or more can be released in a few minutes to a few tens of minutes. Such large flares only occur a few times within a year or two of the maximum in solar activity that occurs every 11 years or so, with the last maximum in 1989. Many smaller flares occur down to the limits of detectability of modern instruments at about 1027 ergs. These smaller events generally last for shorter times down to a few seconds; their occurrence rate also follows the 11-year cycle, peaking at several tens of flares per day.

Solar flares were first detected from their visible or optical emissions. These so called "white light" flares are rarely reported since they are difficult to detect against the intense and constant optical emission from the photosphere. The companion full-Sun image in soft X-rays reveals the location on the solar disc of the white light emission. In general, a solar flare produces copious radiation across the full electromagnetic spectrum from the longest wavelength radio waves to the highest energy gamma rays. The contrast over the background (quiet-Sun) emission is much higher at the shorter X-ray and gamma-ray wavelengths that will be observed with HESSI. Furthermore, these high energy radiations carry direct information about the energetically dominant products of the energy release that is not available from emissions at any other wavelength. The X rays result from the interactions of the high energy electrons energized during the flare, and the gamma rays result primarily from nuclear interactions of the high energy protons and other heavier ions.

Source:  NASA
 
 

doc

[Thor]

What Doc said.  Tactical military electronics, especially stuff made from the 80s onward, is pretty damn tight on EMP, and a solar flare that can outdo a high-altitude thermonuke on EMP-induced currents in electronics would cause a damn' sight more problems than just melting down all the copper long lines and frying integrated circuits.

I ain't gonna get into specifics, but TEMPEST hazards are almost nil with military electronics. Same with EMPs. There's a reason that Mil Specs are so tight. Solar flares will still affect transmitted RF. They always have.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Yeah, in a reall history-making-bad flare, you're not gonna be talking to people over the air much, regardless of how hard the equipment itself is.

[vesta111]

Some time in the 1800's a solar flare caused big problems with the telegraphs, most were dead or some did weird shit, just for a few days or so but it caused problems for the operators------at least one dead from power surges that electrocuted them.

Can the surge of energy wipe out our satellites, possibly then the Van Allen belt that ----can all that energy get beyond that???

Me I will keep my books and forgo the E-readers just in case.