Saturday 12 March 2011

More Active Sun Means Nasty Solar Storms Ahead, reported June 2010


JUNE 2010

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. Solar storms occur when sunspots on our star erupt and spew out flumes of charged particles that can damage power systems. The sun’s activity typically follows an 11-year cycle, and it looks to be coming out of a slump and gearing up for an active period.

“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,” said Richard Fisher, head of NASA’s Heliophysics Division. “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.”

Fisher and other experts met at the Space Weather Enterprise Forum, which took place in Washington, D.C., at the National Press Club. People of the 21st century rely on high-tech systems for the basics of daily life. But smart power grids, GPS navigation, air travel, financial services and emergency radio communications can all be knocked out by intense solar activity.

A major solar storm could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina, warned the National Academy of Sciences in a 2008 report, “Severe Space Weather Events—Societal and Economic Impacts.” Luckily, much of the damage can be mitigated if managers know a storm is coming. That’s why better understanding of solar weather, and the ability to give advance warning, is especially important.

Putting satellites in ‘safe mode’ and disconnecting transformers can protect electronics from damaging electrical surges. “Space weather forecasting is still in its infancy, but we’re making rapid progress,” said Thomas Bogdan, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo.NASA and NOAA work together to manage a fleet of satellites that monitor the sun and help to predict its changes.

A pair of spacecraft called STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) is stationed on opposite sides of the sun, offering a combined view of 90 percent of the solar surface. In addition, SDO (the Solar Dynamics Observatory), which just launched in February 2010, is able to photograph solar active regions with unprecedented spectral, temporal and spatial resolution.

Also, an old satellite called the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE), which launched in 1997, is still chugging along monitoring winds coming off the sun. And there are dozens more dedicated to solar science. “I believe we’re on the threshold of a new era in which space weather can be as influential in our daily lives as ordinary terrestrial weather.” Fisher said. “We take this very seriously indeed.”

3 comments:

  1. Nowadays, people in the world are speaking pole shift, solar storms, changes of the earth's magnetic field, increasing of earthquakes and volcanic activities. The mankind has been awoken to observe and understand that something is happening on the earth, the sun and the space. The Bible (the Word of God) tells the things and phenomenons of the end time that shake the world, which are large and disastrous earthquakes, solar storms and earth's pole shift.

    You can read the whole article in here:
    http://koti.phnet.fi/petripaavola/occurrencesoftheendtime.html

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  2. God is misunderstood, God does not exists in this reality, but as a singularity from where this reality came from. We are of God, God is of us, we all have the power of creation in us, directly and indirectly, the responsibility lays firmly at our own door.

    It has been showen that the universe reacts to our thoughts and feelings. Perhaps what is happening is brought on by the negativity in humanity. The universe, the sun, the planet is reacting to what we are creating.

    Many people feel a need for change, our civilisation creates divide between all cultures and religious intolerance adds to the conflict.

    It is too easy to take responsibility away from ourselves and place it at God's door, the problems are our own and it is up to us to come together as a species, preventing a global disaster.

    Intolerance will only create a further divide, so those who promote religion as the reason for these disasters are only segregating humanity.

    Even Christ said "They know not what they do"

    There is no me and you... only us!

    Something bad seems to be coming, whether it is something natural, brought on by humans or a supernatural event, THE CAUSE IS IRRELEVANT! What is important is how we act in these situations together.

    The strong should help the weak and the enlightened should help the blind!

    For example, the Bible speaks of "The Rapture" this only adds to the divide in humanity and justifies abandonment of your fellow "man" If this is what God is about, well that is wrong. To punish the unenlightened, to punish those who was brought up in different cultures, to punish diversity.

    There are too many people promoting a religious intolerance and divide.

    The truth is only found by understanding all the diversity within humanity. Ignorance is like looking at only one piece of a jigsaw puzzle, when the truth is only found by understanding all the pieces together.

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  3. However, thank you for your comments

    ReplyDelete