[quote]
The Sun has unleashed its strongest flare in four years, observers say.
The eruption is a so-called X-flare, the strongest type; such flares can affect communications on Earth.
Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft [URL="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News021311-flare.html"]recorded an intense flash[/URL] of extreme ultraviolet radiation emanating from a sunspot.
The British Geological Survey (BGS) has issued a geomagnetic storm warning, and says [URL="http://www.geomag.bgs.ac.uk/data_service/space_weather/alert_2011-02-15.html"]observers might be able to see aurorae[/URL] from the northern UK.
The eruptions are expected to hit the Earth's magnetic field field over the next couple of days, causing an increase in geomagnetic activity.
The monster flare was recorded at 0156 GMT on 15 February and directed at the Earth. According to the US space agency, the source of this activity - sunspot 1158 - is growing rapidly.
Solar flares are caused by the sudden release of magnetic energy stored in the Sun's atmosphere.
Preliminary data from the Stereo-B and Soho spacecraft suggest that the explosion produced a fast but not particularly bright coronal mass ejection (CME) - a burst of charged particles released into space.
The unpredictable activity on the Sun can interfere with modern technology on Earth, such as electrical power grids, communications systems and satellites - including the satellite navigation (or sat-nav) signals used on Earth.
On Wednesday, the BGS released a rarely seen [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/www.bgs.ac.uk/data/Magnetograms/home.html"]archive of geomagnetic records[/URL] that provide an insight into "space weather" stretching back to the Victorian era.
BGS scientists says that studying past solar activity could inform the prediction of future space weather and help mitigate threats to national infrastructure.
In 1972, geomagnetic storm provoked by a solar flare knocked out long-distance telephone communication across the US state of Illinois.
And in 1989, another storm plunged six million people into darkness across the Canadian province of Quebec.
Displays of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) have already been seen further south than usual in Northern Ireland and elsewhere in the UK. And further activity is expected over the next few days.
Researchers say the Sun has been awakening after a period of several years of low activity.[/quote]
[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12485104[/url]
And life goes on.
Won't a big one fuck with transistors? That'd be a shitter for big cities.
To the guy rating me disagree;
[quote]However, if by "inactive", you mean a transistor that is part of a
circuit, but
which is not operating (for example, that part of the circuit is
switched off),
then, yes, a solar flare can still induce a large current pulse into
the circuit
wiring, and whether the transistor is operating or not, it can still
be "killed" by
an excessive current pulse that flows into it from the circuit wiring.[/quote]
Basically, a transistor (either ON or OFF) which is still part of a system could be killed by a big solar flare.
It's hardly not going to do nothing.Maybe a minor inconvenience.
The atmosphere will just filter it out.
[QUOTE=Itsjustguy;28094049]It's hardly not going to do nothing.[/QUOTE]
fucking triple negatives man
Feels like I saw this in a movie.
And yet people say humans have a significant impact on the enviroment. Ho-hum.
[QUOTE=Itsjustguy;28094049]It's hardly not going to do nothing.[/QUOTE]
Holy shit what
[QUOTE=Ardosos;28094123]And yet people say humans have a significant impact on the enviroment. Ho-hum.[/QUOTE]
We do.
[QUOTE=Ardosos;28094123]And yet people say humans have a significant impact on the enviroment. Ho-hum.[/QUOTE]
We do. Bigger than all the volcanoes in the world and bigger than any solar influences. (Especially considering the solar cycles last ~11 years.)
[QUOTE=Ardosos;28094123]And yet people say humans have a significant impact on the enviroment. Ho-hum.[/QUOTE]
We do, but gradually. Natural events are generally short-lived and catastrophic, but the impact humanity has is long-lived and just a constant nag.
Compare it to a vacuum cleaner for 10 seconds, or a mosquito buzzing around your ears for 2 hours straight.
[QUOTE=Kagrenak;28094234]We do. Bigger than all the volcanoes in the world and bigger than any solar influences. (Especially considering the solar cycles last ~11 years.)[/QUOTE]
Not disagreeing with you about our impact, but if that yellow stone volcano went off it would definitely make a larger impact than what we have done.
[QUOTE=Ardosos;28094123]And yet people say humans have a significant impact on the enviroment. Ho-hum.[/QUOTE]
I don't see the relevancy between gradual climate change and a singular event. But okay.
"Largest in 4 years" kind of makes it hard to dread. That means that 4 years ago we saw something similar, or stronger.
[QUOTE=DainBramageStudios;28094083]fucking triple negatives man[/QUOTE]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFOSr0fkR1A[/media]
Skip to 8 minutes and 35 seconds.It's explained by an actually physicist.
[QUOTE=I Broke The Sun!;28094411]I don't see the relevancy between gradual climate change and a singular event. But okay.[/QUOTE]
[img]http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/6007/sunspotlenghtteperature.gif[/img]
Because we're on the subject of the sun/climate change correlation.
Edit:
Rate me dumb if you must, but please provide a counter-argument in order to give that tiny icon any bit of weight. I'm mearly
starting a discussion.
[QUOTE=Ardosos;28094123]And yet people say humans have a significant impact on the enviroment. Ho-hum.[/QUOTE]
The sun can cause massive damage to the environment, therefore humans can't?
Not really.
[QUOTE=Itsjustguy;28094049]It's hardly not going to do nothing.Maybe a minor inconvenience.
The atmosphere will just filter it out.[/QUOTE]
You fail English Grammar Forever.
And life goes on.
I've seen this about 2 or 3 times here in FP, and everything seems to be just in the same shit as it was left back in the day.
[QUOTE=HeadshotDCS;28094559][img_thumb]http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/6007/sunspotlenghtteperature.gif[/img_thumb]
Because we're on the subject of the sun/climate change correlation.
Edit:
Rate me dumb if you must, but please provide a counter-argument in order to give that tiny icon any bit of weight. I'm mearly
starting a discussion.[/QUOTE]
Kinda funny how your graph conveniently ends right before the huge increase in CO2.
Here's your average sunspot cycle. As you can see, your graph only demonstrated the peak, when in fact, the sunspot cycle has declined.
[img]http://people.uleth.ca/~dan.johnson/images/sunspots.png[/img]
Now here are your temperature averages. Demonstrating that the temperature has not declined with the sunspots.
[img]http://people.uleth.ca/~dan.johnson/images/Instrumental_Temperature_Record2.png[/img]
Here's another conveniently ending graph. Similar to yours, but with a CO2 statistic.
[img]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_tm33tTS2iZc/RsnMHTqSHfI/AAAAAAAAALU/R1uCnPxnDKw/s400/010405M2.gif[/img]
Now here's the full graph. With the CO2, sun spot cycle and temperature statistics. As you can see, it demonstrates the sunspot cycle and how the temperature rose with it, but then continued to rise with the CO2 increase after the cycle declined.
[img]http://www.friendsofscience.org/assets/documents/FOS%20Essay/Sunspot%20cycle%20global%20temp.jpg[/img]
Not even Nicolas Cage can save us.
[QUOTE=Saren;28106402]Not even Nicolas Cage can save us.[/QUOTE]
Only the torch throat people can
Suppose I should prepare the BBQ food.
I don't know why people give a fuck about CO2, it's NO2 that is causing global warming
Isn't ozone layer still repairing? yeah were dead before then. :lol:
[QUOTE=Saren;28106402]Not even Nicolas Cage can save us.[/QUOTE]
And he's not at all pleased about that.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjpeo3VAvdw[/media]
As long as the solar flare doesn't hinder me from playing TF2, I'm cool with that.
The earth moves too, and solar flares do too.
Besides, we've got a crapton of planets in front of us, any of them could get in front of the solar flare and be swarmed by heat.
Now, if a gas giant is hit, then we're fucked.
It was only an X2 class flare, those arn't going to do anything.
Strongest flare in four years?
:what:
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
