Solar Storms,......Again

Jairo sent us a heads up: "Hey Urban man, Just thought you'd find this interesting, an article on Solar Storms. Stay safe, stay prepared!"

UrbanMan replies: Thanks Jairo. We would be remiss if we didn't mention it here on UrbanSurvivalSkills.com especially before this coming weekend as we are supposed to see the strongest solar storm since 2005. Although I don't remember that one hampering us much. Apparently some commercial airlines had to re-route some planned flights that were flying to close to the North Pole where the stronger aspects of the solar storms were projecting.

The solar storm according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center should not affect much, other than possibly disrupting some communications. The radiation threat could be a concern for those of us who have abnormally higher levels of radiation due to our jobs or past exposure. I think this will be much ado about nothing. This is what mb.com is saying about the coming solar storm:

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.

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.

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.

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.