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Post by ironhorse on Aug 3, 2010 16:09:24 GMT -7
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Post by coykil on Aug 3, 2010 17:26:11 GMT -7
Saw this on Yahoo today. Interesting.
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Post by ironhorse on Aug 3, 2010 18:05:06 GMT -7
Is a very small taste of one of my "What if" scenarios.....
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Post by ironhorse on Aug 4, 2010 19:26:27 GMT -7
Meh.... Just some pretty lights...
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brsu
Full Member
Posts: 142
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Post by brsu on Aug 5, 2010 12:02:36 GMT -7
Yeah not at all like the big story.
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Post by pa046 on Aug 5, 2010 12:11:06 GMT -7
Makes you wonder
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Post by kbs on Aug 5, 2010 16:26:14 GMT -7
Yes, it does.
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Post by ironhorse on Aug 5, 2010 21:15:03 GMT -7
I know 0413 asked some questions and I do intend to answer them... right now I'm buried at work but hope to get a few moments soon to do that... Thank you for being patient..
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Post by ironhorse on Aug 8, 2010 20:28:16 GMT -7
Here are my observations regarding the Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) (read: solar flare) that occurred this week that everyone was concerned about and I myself made mention of here. I advise some caution in over-reacting to these types of events. While the CME itself was of a very high magnitude and is spectacular in images, it was never anticipated that it would cause us any major problems. Predictions for auroral activity were only in the high latitudes, and auroral activity is a dead-giveaway as to how strong the impact on the ground will be.
The spectacular images we have all seen over the last week told me we had nothing to be concerned about. The CME was silhouetted against dark space; meaning the majority of the CME was pointed away from earth out into space. It's the less spectacular images we should be concerned about, when the CME occurs directly facing the earth with only the sun's surface in the background.
The fact that we are still climbing out of the solar minimum (11 year solar cycle low point) also saved us. 1. The normal background solar wind was low to begin with. 2. Flares that occur during the solar minimum occur at high latitudes on the sun, meaning there is a much greater chance the bulk of the CME will miss us. As the solar maximum increases, sunspots and CMEs begin to concentrate around the sun's equator, giving them a much higher chance of being directed towards us.
If this particular CME had been pointing towards us we would have been in big trouble, there's no doubt about that. But there has certainly been a big beat-up by the media over this event which has scared a lot of people. As we all know, you can't rely on the media for accurate scientific or emergency information, and in this case they were mostly concerned about how good this event looked in print.
The next time there is a large CME most people are going to be saying "Look at the last one, it was a flop", however each event needs to be judged according to the facts and based on it's own merits. While it looked pretty, this was just a space storm in a teacup.
I advise anyone concerned about these issues to register for Space Weather Alerts with spaceweather.com. You can even have the alerts sent to your mobile phone. There is usually a few day's warning until the CME reaches Earth (could help if you are camping or overseas at the time). At the very least it will give you a heads-up when to watch for aurorae.
This event should be used as a warning to the unprepared. Space happens, do get ready for it.
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