Strongest Solar Storm in Years Bombarding Earth With Radiation
- Posted on January 23, 2012 at 4:42pm by
Liz Klimas
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X-ray image of a solar flare Jan. 23, 2011. (Image: NOAA via Space.com)
WASHINGTON (The Blaze/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.
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.
Space.com reports that the strongest radiation to hit Earth from the sun since 2005 will arrive Tuesday morning and is likely to continue through Wednesday.
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.
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.
Watch Space.com’s footage of some solar storms:
The radiation — in the form of protons — came flying out of the sun at 93 million miles per hour.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Now that super-quiet cycle doesn’t seem as likely, Biesecker said.
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.”
Space.com reports that solar activity is expected to increase more in 2013.
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Comments (69)
ENTP
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 8:48pmI hope the sun doesn’t melt an endangered snail somewhere…. or it will have the EPA to answer to.
Report Post »Oh WAIT!!! I know, the oil industry is causing the solar flares along with earthquakes & Tsunamis.
OMG, I am literally LMAO right now!!
Seriously though, even with these solar flares, scientist still say the earth is cooling, & will continue.
The bitter winter afflicting much of the Northern Hemisphere is only the start of a global trend towards cooler weather that is likely to last for 20 or 30 years, say some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists.Their predictions – based on an analysis of natural cycles in water temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans – challenge some of the global warming orthodoxy’s most deeply cherished beliefs, such as the claim that the North Pole will be free of ice in
summer by 2013.According to the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado, Arctic summer sea ice has increased by 409,000 square miles, or 26 per cent, since 2007 – and even the most committed global warming activists do not dispute this.
The scientists’ predictions also undermine the standard climate computer models, which assert that the warming of the Earth since 1900 has been driven solely by man-made greenhouse gas emissions and will continue as long as carbon dioxide levels rise. January9, 2010 Article
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1242011/DAVID-ROSE-The-mini-ice-age-starts-here.html#ixzz1kKrbX3zg
drphil69
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 9:36pmYes, even after NASA reported direct evidence that global warming computer models greatly underestimate the heat that leaves the Earth, not to mention the small influence they give to the sun, they still use the same old models they developed in the 90′s to “prove” global warming… I mean global climate change… is happening.
Report Post »AyaTolla U
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 8:37pmI’ll be tuning up the ham bands!
Report Post »Rayblue
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 8:29pmWe’ll all be microwaved like old commenting TV dinners.
Report Post »Just remember to cut a slit in your underwear to vent.
VicksVaporub
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 9:00pmThe sun god Mithra aka Jesus Christ is on his way to earth!
Report Post »smithclar3nc3
Posted on January 24, 2012 at 7:42amHopefully all that CO2 is trapping heat with filter or insulate us from that radiation…..LOL
Report Post »Black Manta
Posted on January 24, 2012 at 3:47pmJesus is not a sun god, He’s Lord and Saviour,Son of God YAHWEH…
Report Post »TeaBill
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 8:15pmRon Paul 2012
jb.kibs
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 8:46pm4God and 4Liberty.
Report Post »Christhefarmer
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 8:05pmTo all my tinfoil hat wearing friends, please do not wear them tomorrow as they will increase the power of the flare and cook your brains.
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 8:46pmnice ;)
Report Post »00gabooga
Posted on January 24, 2012 at 9:17amNot if you insulate your tin foil hat with Ron Paul bumper stickers.
Report Post »possom
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 7:53pmThe zombie apocalypse is coming, no wait it started when obomo took office.
Report Post »nobull14
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 7:46pmIt sounds a lot like that movie 2012 that they were playing all weekend on TNT ? I wonder if the money Obama has been spending is too put the rich and government leader on Arks when the magnetic poles switch !!!!
Report Post »Smokey_Bojangles
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 7:34pmHow can AL Gore blame this one Republicans to appease his angry green god?
Report Post »youguysready_letsroll
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 7:13pmThat giant heater in the sky is supposed to put out a steady and consistent amount of energy at ALL times. All them cow farts and SUV emissions are the root cause of this.
Report Post »Ruler4You
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 7:41pmYou’d almost expect that with a predictable cycle of every 11/22 years that we‘d see some sort of ’expectation’ for increased levels of solar activity during periods that would be defined as predictable increases.
But, IMHBLO, we have been playing the ‘odd’s‘ and we find ourselves in a ’situation’ where for the sake of convenience we have weakened our infrastructure in recklessness to embrace “new” technology and economic stimulation. Not in careful prudent judgement.
I could have presumed profits were the motive, and possibly were. But I avoided that conclusion, here. Although, it likely was. Meaning the consequences were contemplated.
Report Post »loriann12
Posted on January 24, 2012 at 6:44amAnd to think I pay good money to go and have radiation applied to my cancer on my spine….I could just sit outside in the sunshine.
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on January 24, 2012 at 7:24am@youguys… & @ruler…
Report Post »Comments are RIGHT ON THE MONEY!!
I would even have expected our islam outreach program ( the “IOP” formerly known as NASA), to have done a study on solar activity as a probable cause of so-called “global warming…” oh, wait, they DID… MULTIPLE TIMES!!! No wonder we must shut them down. There is danger in having a reputable voice dispute the junk science (pay-for-play research)… oops, I meant ‘accepted fact’, of “global warming”… oops, I meant “next ice age”… oops, I meant “global climate change”. Yeah, that’s it!
cuinsong
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 7:08pmWell I am hedging my bets on 2012 after this news. things look suspiciously close to prophesy to me and it sounds like “The End Times”
Report Post »http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_10381143
reasonablerhetoric
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 8:09pmThis happened back in 2005, and has been happening for as long as the sun has been formed. There’s nothing “end time” about it.
Report Post »chips1
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 8:30pmREASON:
Report Post »Party pooper!!!
SmallGovBigGuns
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 6:51pmi dont like this stoy cuz the picture came from boulder colorado. gross. the words are good tho
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 8:55pmdon’t like boulder colorado? lol…
Report Post »qpwillie
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 6:22pmI hope the sun keeps on doing what the sun does. It seems to be working pretty good so far.
Report Post »pap pap
Posted on January 24, 2012 at 1:32pmQPWILLIE I totaly agree
Report Post »moosebeeusa
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 6:20pmDon’t worry the EPA will stop it buy regulations.
Report Post »Pillar of Fire
Posted on January 24, 2012 at 4:02pmDemwits have taxed everything else…why not tax the air, set up software & find something to blame??? (their forte)
Report Post »christos
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 6:09pmWhat they can’t use their witchcraft to control the weather,,,Is anything they say credible??? Or is it for more Fantasy Control of people or $$$,,You know “They Can Almost Control The Weather” HAHAHA
Report Post »christos
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 6:13pmPossibly a cause for “Pre Radiation Tax” Oh My,1,000 paper cuts…Or is it Aliens,,,HAHAHA
Report Post »Wolf
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 7:17pmWe need a gathering at Stonehenge- maybe the Brits can make it against the law for the sun to have Corona Effects, or they can do some voodoo to blame Bush.
Report Post »daguanno1972
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 6:00pmsomeone call Eric Holder and file a complaint. I want to sue the solar system for exposing me to this radiation.
Report Post »Wolf
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 7:37pmWhy not call Janet Naplolitano and ask why the sun isn’t on the list of domestic terrorists?
Report Post »flatbroke
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 5:59pmheadline: THE SUN KICKS @$$” LOLOLOL!
Report Post »vtxphantom
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 5:58pmShould get some good aurora out this. If you live in the northern states keep an eye on the night sky.
Report Post »flatbroke
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 5:57pmgreat! tuesday all the commies, and libs are gonna be vaporized!
Report Post »db321
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 6:29pmAll Vaporized! That would be Heaven on Earth – Let’s hope they do vaporize or they might spend a Gazillion Dollars to block the Sun from Global Warning with an Earth Shield.
An Insider told me that Al Gore is already on it – working on Regulation!
Report Post »cloudsofwar
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 5:55pmwell you know it is 2012 and this is our last year. just like the movie 2012.
Report Post »ares338
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 5:54pmQuick……get out the solar panels!
Report Post »floradaze
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 5:54pmDon’t be ridiculous, everyone knows that your car and the electricity you use causes global warming. It’s just silly to think that the star that gives us light and heat would affect our weather.
Report Post »Go back to sleep little sheeps. we have been bombarded by this radiation for days now because of another one that arrived here Satuday.The only reason they are talking about it is because this next one is number two of a one-two punch.For further information google Carrington Event.
It happened in 1869 and we didn’t have all the electrical grids that we have now.
jb.kibs
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 8:51pmexactly. but, we all CHOOSE to ignore history… so… i mean, you know… that never happened…
Report Post »that is why Newt is so great and Romney and exactly why Ron Paul is a nut, because, you know… obviously we don’t care about anyones actual past or record… or what the founding fathers have said, our declaration of independence, or about what has happened in nations thoughout history…. we simply care what they look like and if the media says they are cool, then we will agree with that. got it? now sit down and quit bahing!
SpankDaMonkey
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 5:47pm.
Somebody tell Obama to go stand outside…..
The rest of us will Pray that the Radiation will Cure his Stupidity. OK EVERYBODY PRAY…..
Report Post »KickinBack
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 5:56pmOr he might just grow another head and all our problems will be doubled.
Report Post »LIBS-ARE-DINGLEHEADS
Posted on January 24, 2012 at 5:12amObama HAS been standing outside….for decades…..explains a lot. Al Gore too.
Report Post »John Kettlewell
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 5:47pmit’s time for a commision to study the sun and determine how best to get rid of this nuisance.
Report Post »disenlightened
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 5:43pmWho cares. We’ve got Global Warming to worry about. Why bore us with stories about the insignificant sun?
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 5:33pmNotify Al Gore… The inconveniant Douch… There appears to be global warming on the SUN !!!
Report Post »