Are you ready for 2012?

[Samstwitch]

That first video that I posted in the opening comment was removed. Here's another one that I think is the same:

 

[Graveyard Hound]

After being in combat, I don't think the end of time, civilization, etc., could be much worst that watching your friends get shot, having to leve some that died and their bodies were left behind, so don't talk me about what if's, what if's aren''t real, they don't bleed, they don't die in your arms, sh**. Be there when the end does come and you don't see it coming.

 

[Samstwitch]

After being in combat, I don't think the end of time, civilization, etc., could be much worst that watching your friends get shot, having to leve some that died and their bodies were left behind, so don't talk me about what if's, what if's aren''t real, they don't bleed, they don't die in your arms, sh**. Be there when the end does come and you don't see it coming.

I'm sorry for your misfortune. Many of us have lost loved ones, but that is not what this topic is about. This is about getting ready for possible damage and mishay from Solar Flares in 2012-2013.

In the past 2 years, thousands of people have died from earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, radiation, and many other disasters on earth. If we have warning of another possible disaster, we should prepare for it without being reprimanded, and to avoid further loss of life. We must be wise and prudent.

 

[Samstwitch]

Today's Headline:

STRONGEST SOLAR STORM SINCE 2005 HITTING EARTH​

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The sun is bombarding Earth with radiation from the biggest solar storm in more than six years with more to come from the fast-moving eruption.​

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The solar flare occurred at about 11 p.m. EST Sunday and will hit Earth with three different effects at three different times. The biggest issue is radiation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado.​

The radiation is mostly a concern for satellite disruptions and astronauts in space. It can cause communication problems for polar-traveling airplanes, said space weather center physicist Doug Biesecker.​

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Radiation from Sunday's flare arrived at Earth an hour later and will likely continue through Wednesday. Levels are considered strong but other storms have been more severe. There are two higher levels of radiation on NOAA's storm scale — severe and extreme — Biesecker said. Still, this storm is the strongest for radiation since May 2005.​

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The radiation — in the form of protons — came flying out of the sun at 93 million miles per hour.​

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"The whole volume of space between here and Jupiter is just filled with protons and you just don't get rid of them like that," Biesecker said. That's why the effects will stick around for a couple days.​

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NASA's flight surgeons and solar experts examined the solar flare's expected effects and decided that the six astronauts on the International Space Station do not have to do anything to protect themselves from the radiation, spokesman Rob Navias said.​

A solar eruption is followed by a one-two-three punch, said Antti Pulkkinen, a physicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and Catholic University.​

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First comes electromagnetic radiation, followed by radiation in the form of protons. Then, finally the coronal mass ejection — that's the plasma from the sun itself — hits. Usually that travels at about 1 or 2 million miles per hour, but this storm is particularly speedy and is shooting out at 4 million miles per hour, Biesecker said.​

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It's the plasma that causes much of the noticeable problems on Earth, such as electrical grid outages. In 1989, a solar storm caused a massive blackout in Quebec. It can also pull the northern lights further south.​

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But this coronal mass ejection seems likely to be only moderate, with a chance for becoming strong, Biesecker said. The worst of the storm is likely to go north of Earth.​

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And unlike last October, when a freak solar storm caused auroras to be seen as far south as Alabama, the northern lights aren't likely to dip too far south this time, Biesecker said. Parts of New England, upstate New York, northern Michigan, Montana and the Pacific Northwest could see an aurora but not until Tuesday evening, he said.​

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For the past several years the sun had been quiet, almost too quiet. Part of that was the normal calm part of the sun's 11-year cycle of activity. Last year, scientists started to speculate that the sun was going into an unusually quiet cycle that seems to happen maybe once a century or so.​

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Now that super-quiet cycle doesn't seem as likely, Biesecker said.​

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Scientists watching the sun with a new NASA satellite launched in 2010 — during the sun's quiet period — are excited.​

"We haven't had anything like this for a number of years," Pulkkinen said. "It's kind of special."​

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NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/​

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/​

SOURCE: http://news.yahoo.com/strongest-solar-storm-since-2005-hitting-earth-163628746.html

 

[Num7]

It's interesting how we hear about solar flares in the news since a few years. We seem to stumble upon those articles much more often than back then. Nice find.

Do you believe a giant solar flare is a likely scenario?

 

[Samstwitch]

Do you believe a giant solar flare is a likely scenario?

It already happened in 1859 (Michio Kaku says it happens every 100 years)...In our time, in Canada the city of Quebec was partially paralized, and 2003 in South Africa 14 Power Stations were wiped out, all because of Solar Flares. There is a giant hole in the earth's magnetic field (the magnetic field protects us from Solar Flares), and the hole is 10 times larger than anyone imagined. NASA has officially warned that 2012 is expected to get huge Solar Flares, so YES I do think it is a likely scenario.

Only time will tell. Prepare for the worst, and hope for the best. That old saying, 'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure', is true.

 

[Samstwitch]

Today's Headline:

'Space Hurricane': Huge Solar Storm Is Pounding Earth Now​

A wave of charged particles from an intense solar storm is pummeling the Earth right now, which may trigger stunning aurora displays and cause minor disruptions to satellites over the next two days, NASA scientists say.​

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The storm began when a powerful solar flare erupted on the sun yesterday (Jan. 23), blasting a stream of charged particles toward Earth. This electromagnetic burst, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), hit Earth at about 9:31 a.m. EST (1430 GMT), according to scientists at the Space Weather Center at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.​

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"It's a minor to moderate storm," Yihua Zheng, a lead researcher at the Space Weather Center, told SPACE.com. "Probably in the next 10 hours or so, people at high latitudes can see auroras. This could maybe cause communication errors at the polar caps, but the magnetic activities are probably not too strong."​

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The northern lights displays will be especially visible for people in northern latitudes where it is currently night.​

"For parts of Europe already, and further points to the east, we should expect to see strong magnetic storm conditions," Harlan Spence, an astrophysicist at the University of New Hampshire, director of its Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, told SPACE.com. "There's a very good chance tonight that we'll be seeing some very strong auroral displays. Typically auroras occur at relatively high latitudes, but for events like this, you could get auroras down at mid to low latitudes."​

When a coronal mass ejection hits Earth, it can trigger potentially harmful geomagnetic storms as the charged particles and the fields within it interact with the planet's magnetic field lines. This can amp up normal displays of Earth's auroras (also known as the northern and southern lights), but a strong CME aimed directly at Earth can also cause disruptions to satellites in orbit, as well as power grids and communications infrastructures on the ground.​

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Yesterday's solar flare set off an extremely fast-moving CME, Zheng said, and the associated radiation storm was the strongest since 2005. But the ejected cloud of plasma and charged particles was not directly aimed at Earth, and is hitting the planet at an angle instead. This glancing blow will likely lessen any impacts on Earth, she added. [Photos: Huge Solar Flare Sparks Major Radiation Storm]​

"Earth's magnetic field served as a shield, and pretty much shielded the radiation so that it doesn't penetrate that deep," Zheng said. "It's like a car collision: head-on or off to the side. A CME is like that too. For this one, if it was a direct hit, Earth would receive a much stronger impact. This one was on an angle — toward higher latitudes and a little off the ecliptic — otherwise it would be a much stronger impact."​

Still, the storm does rank as the biggest space radiation event in about seven years, Spence said.​

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"It's not as big as some of the big, historic storms, but the chance for re-intensification is still possible because this active spot on the sun that created the initial havoc could go off again," he explained.​

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Several NASA satellites, including the Solar Dynamics Observatory, the Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), and the Stereo spacecraft observed the massive sun storm. Data from these spacecraft were combined to help scientists create models to calculate when and where the CME was going to hit Earth.​

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"A CME is kind of like a space hurricane," Zheng said. "You have to predict how it will form and evolve. From the models, we can see which spacecraft will be in its path, and what will be impacted."​

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At the Space Weather Center, scientists were able to pinpoint the arrival of the CME more accurately than ever before.​

"We predicted it would arrive at 9:18 a.m. and in reality, it arrived at 9:31 a.m., so ours has a 13-minute error," Zheng said. "Usually for this kind of model, the average error is seven hours, so this is the best case."​

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Yesterday's solar flare was rated an M9-class eruption, which placed it teetering on the edge of being an X-class flare, the most powerful type of solar storm. M-class sun storms are powerful but mid-range, while C-class flares are weaker.​

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The flare erupted from sunspot 1402, a region near the meridian of the sun that has been active for a while now, Zheng said. The powerful solar storm could be signaling that the sun is waking up after an extended period of relative dormancy.​

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The sun's activity waxes and wanes on an 11-year cycle. The star is currently in the midst of Solar Cycle 24, and activity is expected to continue ramping up toward the solar maximum in 2013.​

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SOURCE & PHOTOS AT: http://news.yahoo.com/space-hurricane-huge-solar-storm-pounding-earth-now-174402987.html​

 

[ZeoEmeraude]

I found this cool photo from Norway in response to last night's light show. I think it looks like a pheonix...but you be the judge.

 

[Samstwitch]

I found this cool photo from Norway in response to last night's light show. I think it looks like a pheonix...but you be the judge.

Oh my stars, that's incredible! Thanks for posting.

You can see Videos here (click green Headline):
Videos show giant solar flares, ensuing aurora borealis

 

[Crethox]

I wish i would have been able to see it with my own eyes, no luck, too clouded. Darn dutch weather lol