YouTube Added: 02.10.2011
Search the dates 2011-09-29 through 2011-10-03
select the LASCO C2 or C3 camera …
here is the SOHO website:
Sun
NOAA: Solar Storms Could Debilitate Earth this Decade
– Solar Storms Could Debilitate Earth this Decade: NOAA (International Business Times, August 6, 2011):
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a federal agency that focuses on the condition of the oceans and atmosphere, said that a severe solar storm could cause global chaos, debilitating satellite communications and taking down the most important global power grids.
The NOAA predicted four extreme solar emissions which could threaten the planet this decade. Similarly, NASA warned that a peak in the sun’s magnetic energy cycle and the number of sun spots or flares around 2013 could enable extremely high radiation levels.
Government studies revealed that extreme solar flare emissions could cause blackouts, possibly for years, in large portions of the U.S.
This type of storm could also induce geomagnetic currents that could debilitate transformers on the power grid. Electric power would be out for years or even decades.
Read moreNOAA: Solar Storms Could Debilitate Earth this Decade
SOHO: Comet Heading Towards The Sun – Impact Will Occur Very Soon
Added: 15.05.2011
http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater
select LASCO C2 or LASCO C3 and date range is 2011-05-14 to 2011-05-15
Canadian Inventor’s Brilliant Home Heating Solution: Converting Pop Cans Into Powerful Solar Heating Panel
Jim Meaney, owner of Cansolair Inc. displays how he converts pop cans into a powerful solar heating panel.
Scientists Engineered GMO That ‘Makes Diesel Fuel Using Sun, Water And Carbon Dioxide’
Breakthrough? Scientists said they can produce a fuel that runs jet engines using the same ingredients that make grass grow – sunlight, water and carbon dioxide
Scientists have genetically engineered an organism that secretes diesel fuel wherever there is sunlight, water and carbon dioxide.
Biotechnology company Joule Unlimited claims it can produce diesel fuel and ethanol on demand at unprecedented rates.
Researchers at the firm, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said they can produce the fuel that runs jet engines using the same ingredients that make grass grow.
They also claim to be able to make it in facilities both large and small and at costs comparable to the cheapest fossil fuels.
Joule’s website describes the breakthrough as ‘energy independence’, although many remain sceptical.
Chief executive Bill Sims said: ‘We make some lofty claims, all of which we believe, all which we’ve validated, all of which we’ve shown to investors.
‘If we’re half-right, this revolutionises the world’s largest industry, which is the oil and gas industry.
‘And if we’re right, there’s no reason why this technology can’t change the world.’
Read moreScientists Engineered GMO That ‘Makes Diesel Fuel Using Sun, Water And Carbon Dioxide’
Powerful Solar Storm Disrupts Communications – Scientists Warn of $2,000 Billion Solar ‘Katrina’
An X2.2 flare erupted from the sun’s active region 1158 (at lower right)
– Powerful solar storm disrupts communications (Sify):
Washington, Feb 20 (IANS) A powerful solar flare has triggered the largest space weather storm in four years, disrupting some ground communications on earth.
Classified as a Class X flare, the Feb 15 event also spewed billions of tons of charged particles, igniting a geomagnetic storm in the Earth’s magnetic field, said Daniel Baker, director of University of Colorado-Boulder’s Lab for Space Physics.
Such powerful ejections can disrupt airline navigation systems and power grids to the safety of airline crews and astronauts, according to a Colorado statement.
– Space storms threaten technology (BBC News)
Thomas Bogdan, the director of the Space Weather Prediction Centre at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), said global positions systems, satellite delivered systems and the power grid are all at risk from solar flares.
– US Must Take Space Storm Threat Seriously, Experts Warn (Space.com):
WASHINGTON — Space weather could pose serious problems here on Earth in the coming years, the chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Saturday (Feb. 19).
– Scientists warn of $2000bn solar ‘Katrina’ (Financial Times)
The sun is waking up from a long quiet spell. Last week it sent out the strongest flare for four years – and scientists are warning that earth should prepare for an intense electromagnetic storm that, in the worst case, could be a “global Katrina” costing the world economy $2,000bn.
Senior officials responsible for policy on solar storms – also known as space weather – in the US, UK and Sweden urged more preparedness at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington.
“We have to take the issue of space weather seriously,” said Sir John Beddington, UK chief scientist. “The sun is coming out of a quiet period, and our vulnerability has increased since the last solar maximum [around 2000].”
“Predict and prepare should be the watchwords,” agreed Jane Lubchenco, head of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “So much more of our technology is vulnerable than it was 10 years ago.”
Cancer: Mum Who Avoided Sun And Always Wore Sunscreen Cream In The Sun Dies From Skin Tumor
Vitamin D prevents cancer, whereas sunscreen (intentionally) contains chemicals, that cause when mixed and just a little heated, sunbathing is enough, cancer!
The sunshine vitamin could save your life:
– Study: Vitamin D And Sunlight Reduce Breast Cancer Risk By 43 Percent
– Study: Light Therapy Clears Psoriasis And Boosts Vitamin D Levels
– New Study: UV Light Dramatically Lessens Multiple Sclerose Symptoms
– Study: Epidemic of Vitamin D Deficiency
– Vitamin D guards against bowel cancer, research suggests
– Vitamin D prevents diabetes, improves insulin sensitivity: Study
– Vitamin D prevents heart disease (… and 77% of all cancers)
– Twenty Reasons Why Vitamin D Is Better Than The Swine Flu Vaccine
– Michael Holick M.D.,Ph. D.: Vitamin D and Prevention of Chronic Diseases (MUST-SEE!!!)
– Epidemic Influenza And Vitamin D (Flashback)
– US: Vitamin D deficiency common in children
– Vitamin D is ray of sunshine for multiple sclerosis patients
Carmel Smith always wore sunscreen and insisted on sitting in the shade on holidays abroad
A YOUNG mum who never sunbathed has died after developing skin cancer.
Mother-of-two Carmel Smith always wore sunscreen cream in the sun and insisted on sitting in the shade on holidays abroad.
Doctors initially said she had a 99.9 per cent chance of survival but they were unable to prevent the cancer from spreading.
Now her devastated joiner husband Mal has urged anyone who fears they may have skin cancer to contact their doctor immediately.
Read moreCancer: Mum Who Avoided Sun And Always Wore Sunscreen Cream In The Sun Dies From Skin Tumor
Vast Solar Eruption Shocks NASA: An Entire Hemisphere Of The Sun Has Erupted, Raising Doubts on Sun Theory
– Vast Solar Eruption Shocks NASA and Raises Doubts on Sun Theory (Suite 101, Jan 3, 2011):
NASA reports an entire hemisphere of the sun has erupted. The U.S. space agency now admits the cataclysm puts existing solar theories in doubt.
We are forever being told that the sun is a vast gas ball of hydrogen and helium at the center of our solar system. But new evidence may help prove this isn’t the case after all, according to solar experts who say the sun has an iron core.
A stunned NASA admits, “Astronomers knew they had witnessed something big. It was so big, it may have shattered old ideas about solar activity.”
Solar Storm To Hit Earth With ‘Force Of 100 Million Hydrogen Bombs’
The first solar storm of this cycle hit the Earth early this month, causing it to light up spectacularly / NASA Source: NASA
- Sun ramping up for Solar Max
- First Max event since mid-80s
- US studies effects of ‘digital bomb’
- ISS search for dark matter, anti-universe
AFTER 10 years of comparative slumber, the sun is waking up – and it’s got astronomers on full alert.
This week several US media outlets reported that NASA was warning the massive flare that caused spectacular light shows on Earth earlier this month was just a precursor to a massive solar storm building that had the potential to wipe out the entire planet’s power grid.
NASA has since rebutted those reports, saying it could come “100 years away or just 100 days”, but an Australian astronomer says the space community is betting on the sooner scenario rather than the latter.
Despite its rebuttal, NASA’s been watching out for this storm since 2006 and reports from the US this week claim the storms could hit on that most Hollywood of disaster dates – 2012.
Similar storms back in 1859 and 1921 caused worldwide chaos, wiping out telegraph wires on a massive scale.
The 2012 storm has the potential to be even more disruptive.
“The general consensus among general astronomers (and certainly solar astronomers) is that this coming Solar maximum (2012 but possibly later into 2013) will be the most violent in 100 years,” astronomy lecturer and columnist Dave Reneke said.
“A bold statement and one taken seriously by those it will affect most, namely airline companies, communications companies and anyone working with modern GPS systems.
“They can even trip circuit breakers and knock out orbiting satellites, as has already been done this year.”
Regardless, the point astronomers are making is it doesn’t matter if the next Solar Max isn’t the worst in history, or even as bad as the 1859 storms.
It’s the fact that there hasn’t been one since the mid-80s. Commodore had just launched the Amiga and the only digital storm making the news was Tetris.
No one really knows what effect the 2012-2013 Solar Max will have on today’s digital-reliant society.
Dr Richard Fisher, director of NASA’s Heliophysics division, told Mr Reneke the super storm would hit like “a bolt of lightning”, causing catastrophic consequences for the world’s health, emergency services and national security unless precautions are taken.
US government officials earlier this year took part in a “tabletop exercise” in Boulder, Colorado, to map out what might happen if the Earth was hit with a storm as intense as the 1859 and 1921 storms.
The 1859 storm was of a similar size to that predicted by NASA to hit within the next three years – one of decreased activity, but more powerful eruptions.
NASA said that a recent report by the National Academy of Sciences found that if a similar storm occurred today, it could cause “$1 to 2 trillion in damages to society’s high-tech infrastructure and require four to 10 years for complete recovery”.
Staff at the Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado, which hosted the exercise, said with our reliance on satellite technology, such an event could hit the Earth with the magnitude of a global hurricane or earthquake.
The reason for the concern comes as the sun enters a phase known as Solar Cycle 24.
All the alarming news building around the event is being fuelled by two things.
The first is a book by disaster expert Lawrence E. Joseph, Guilty of Apocalypse: The Case Against 2012, in which he claims the “Hurricane Katrina for the Earth” may cause unprecedented planetwide upheaval.
The second is a theory that claims sunspots travel through the sun on a “conveyor belt” similar to the Great Ocean Conveyor Belt which controls weather on Earth.
The belt carries magnetic fields through the sun. When they hit the surface, they explode as sunspots.
Weakened, they then travel back through the sun’s core to recharge.
It all happens on a rough 40-50-year cycle, according to solar physicist David Hathaway of the National Space Science and Technology Center in the US.
He says when the belt speeds up, lots of magnetic fields are collected, which points to more intense future activity.
“The belt was turning fast in 1986-1996,” Prof Hathaway said.
“Old magnetic fields swept up then should reappear as big sunspots in 2010-2011.”
Most experts agree, although those who put the date of Solar Max in 2012 are getting the most press.
They claim satellites will be aged by 50 years, rendering GPS even more useless than ever, and the blast will have the equivalent energy of 100 million hydrogen bombs.
“We know it is coming but we don’t know how bad it is going to be,” Dr Fisher told Mr Reneke in the most recent issue of Australasian Science.
“Systems will just not work. The flares change the magnetic field on the Earth and it’s rapid, just like a lightning bolt.
“That’s the solar effect.”
By Peter Farquhar, Technology Editor
August 25, 2010 3:40PM
Source: news.com.au
The Sun Unleashes Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) At Earth
Earlier this morning, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) witnessed a complex magnetic eruption on the sun. The joint NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) — a mission sitting at the L1 point between the Earth and the sun — also spotted a large coronal mass ejection (CME) blasting in the direction of Earth.
It is thought that the SDO and SOHO observations are connected, making this a global magnetic disturbance affecting the whole of the Earth-facing side of the sun.
The eruption happened at around 0855 UT (3:55 am EST), when the SDO detected a C3-class solar flare originating from a cluster of sunspots (called sunspot 1092). This isn’t a large flare, but right at the same time, a filament located about 100,000 kilometers from the flare also erupted.
A “filament” is a long magnetic structure rising high above the surface of the sun filled with cool plasma. Because it is cooler than the sun’s chromosphere, when in the direct line of sight between the Earth and sun, it appears as a dark ribbon snaking across the sun’s disk. If a filament is spotted on the limb of the sun (i.e. on the side), it appears as a bright prominence arcing high into the sun’s atmosphere.
Judging by the timing, the flare and the filament erupted at the same time, suggesting they are connected via long-range magnetic field lines. The resulting shockwave emanating away from the flare site may have had a role to play in accelerating the filament when it hit the filament’s eruption zone.
Watch the video of the eruption as seen by the SDO:
This sequence of events led to a huge magnetic bubble of plasma being blasted into space. As the eruption was on the Earth-facing side of the sun, the CME is heading right for us — see the SOHO video of the CME. We can expect its arrival on Aug. 3.
Skywatchers will be on high alert that day as when that CME intermingles with the Earth’s magnetosphere, we can expect some intense aurorae around polar regions.
Far from being a frightening event, this morning’s complex solar eruption — including a flare, shockwave, filament eruption and CME — is a testament to the technological ingenuity of the solar scientists and engineers who have designed the powerful solar missions that continually monitor our tumultuous star. Now we know a CME is coming, we can prepare for its arrival.
Read moreThe Sun Unleashes Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) At Earth
Totally Mad Scientists: Simulated Volcanic Eruptions to Block Sun
1. Those idiots should study nature, doing their best to understand it and not experiment with it.
2. There is no such thing as man-made global warming and global warming in general is a total scam.
– Godfrey Bloom Exposes the Global Warming Scam (European Parliament, Strasbourg, 20.01.2010)
(More information below the following article.)
A geoengineering project to block the sun by simulating volcanic eruptions would be 100 times cheaper than cutting greenhouse gas emissions, climate change scientists said.
One proposal is for a fleet of ships that would spray seawater into the sky that would leave behind salt crystals to brighten clouds Photo: NASA
A global plan to put man-made particles into the atmosphere to deflect the Sun’s heat would rapidly lower global temperatures until cuts in carbon dioxide emissions took effect, they argued.
They acknowledged concerns about geoengineering but said multi-national experiments should begin soon before it is too late to reverse climate change or in case a rogue state carried out separate measures.
The environmental scientists, David Keith of the University of Calgary in Canada, Edward Parson of the University of Michigan and Granger Morgan of Carnegie Mellon University, were writing an editorial in the journal, Nature.
They called for governments to establish a multimillion-pound fund for research into the simulated volcanoes and other solar-radiation management techniques for shielding the Earth against sunlight.
“The idea of deliberately manipulating Earth’s energy balance to offset human-driven climate change strikes many as dangerous hubris,” they wrote.
Read moreTotally Mad Scientists: Simulated Volcanic Eruptions to Block Sun
NASA: Quiet Sun Means Dramatic Cooling of Earth’s Upper Atmosphere
HAMPTON, Va., Dec. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — New measurements from a NASA satellite show a dramatic cooling in the upper atmosphere that correlates with the declining phase of the current solar cycle. For the first time, researchers can show a timely link between the Sun and the climate of Earth’s thermosphere, the region above 100 km, an essential step in making accurate predictions of climate change in the high atmosphere.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO)
Scientists from NASA’s Langley Research Center and Hampton University in Hampton, Va., and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., will present these results at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco from Dec. 14 to 18.
Earth’s thermosphere and mesosphere have been the least explored regions of the atmosphere. The NASA Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) mission was developed to explore the Earth’s atmosphere above 60 km altitude and was launched in December 2001. One of four instruments on the TIMED mission, the Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) instrument, was specifically designed to measure the energy budget of the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. The SABER dataset now covers eight years of data and has already provided some basic insight into the heat budget of the thermosphere on a variety of timescales.
The extent of current solar minimum conditions has created a unique situation for recent SABER datasets. The end of solar cycle 23 has offered an opportunity to study the radiative cooling in the thermosphere under exceptionally quiescent conditions.
“The Sun is in a very unusual period,” said Marty Mlynczak, SABER associate principal investigator and senior research scientist at NASA Langley. “The Earth’s thermosphere is responding remarkably — up to an order of magnitude decrease in infrared emission/radiative cooling by some molecules.”
Read moreNASA: Quiet Sun Means Dramatic Cooling of Earth’s Upper Atmosphere
Michael Holick M.D.,Ph. D.: Vitamin D and Prevention of Chronic Diseases
Related information:
– Epidemic Influenza And Vitamin D (Flashback)
– US: Vitamin D deficiency common in children
– Doctor questions value of vaccines
– Vitamin D is ray of sunshine for multiple sclerosis patients
Added: 5. März 2009
More info: VitaminDHealth.org
The Longest Solar Eclipse of the Century
A total solar eclipse is seen in Varanasi, India, Wednesday, July 22, 2009. The longest solar eclipse of the 21st century pitched a swath of Asia from India to China into near darkness Wednesday as millions gathered to watch the phenomenon. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
Related article: Two killed in stampede during eclipse in India (China Daily)
Darkness falls in Asia during total eclipse, luring masses
State television in China broadcast this image of the eclipse.
(CNN) — The longest solar eclipse of the century cast a wide shadow for several minutes over Asia and the Pacific Ocean Wednesday, luring throngs of people outside to watch the spectacle.
Day turned into night, temperatures turned cooler in cities and villages teemed with amateur stargazers.
The total eclipse started in India on Wednesday morning and moved eastward across Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Vietnam, China and parts of the Pacific. Millions cast their eyes towards the heavens to catch a rare view of the sun’s corona.
Cloud cover in some areas prevented people from fully savoring the phenomenon. Still, many were awed.
Tim O’Rourke, a 45-year-old freelance photographer from Detroit, Michigan, lives in Hong Kong but traveled up to Shanghai — touted as one of the best spots to watch the eclipse. 
Watch the ‘exceptional’ eclipse »
“It was pitch black like midnight,” said O’Rourke, standing in People’s Square with what appeared to be a crowd of thousands.
“Definitely not disappointed we came. Of course it would have been much better with nice weather, blue skies. But still it was a great experience, it was a lot of fun.” he said. 
Viewing the eclipse in pictures »
Total eclipses occur about twice a year as the moon passes between the Earth and the sun on the same plane as Earth’s orbit. Wednesday’s event lasted up to more than six minutes in some places. Watch what a total solar eclipse entails »
- Solar eclipse scares Indian mothers-to-be
- Blog: Reflections on nature’s grand show
- Explainer: How eclipses work
In India, where an eclipse pits science against superstition, thousands took a dip in the Ganges River in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi to cleanse their souls, said Ajay Kumar Upadhyay, the district’s most senior official. Send us your photos of the eclipse
The Sun Has Spots, Finally
The Joint ESA-NASA Ulysses spacecraft flies under the pole of the sun, as seen in this computer animation, where it is exploring the heliosphere. REUTERS/handout
After one of the longest sunspot droughts in modern times, solar activity picked up quickly over the weekend.
A new group of sunspots developed, and while not dramatic by historic standards, the spots were the most significant in many months.
“This is the best sunspot I’ve seen in two years,” observer Michael Buxton of Ocean Beach, Calif., said on Spaceweather.com.
The Great Global Warming Swindle (Documentary)
– Ron Paul: Global Warming Petition Signed by 31,478 Scientists (YouTube)
– NASA Study: Solar Cycle, Not Man, Responsible for Gobal Warming (DailyTech)
– Al Gore sued by over 30.000 Scientists for fraud (YouTube)
– World is getting colder: It’s the sun, not CO2, that’s to blame (Washington Times)
– Global warning: We are actually heading towards a new Ice Age, claim scientists (Daily Mail)
– Scientists find greenhouse gas hysteria to be myth (World Net Daily)
– 2008 was the year man-made global warming was disproved (Telegraph)
– Army: Sun, Not Man, Is Causing Climate Change (Wired)
– World might be heading towards Ice Age (Economic Times)
Lasers to create mini sun in hunt for clean energy
However, the NIF experiment is not without controversy. The Californian facility’s primary purpose is to allow munitions to be tested without a radioactive fallout, which would contravene the nuclear test ban treaty.
Critics fear the US military is using the NIF complex to develop a new generation of advanced nuclear weapons, although a spokesman for the facility denied this.
Physicists hope to develop the first form of nuclear fusion technology by firing laser beams at a pellet of hydrogen
SCIENTISTS are to use the world’s most powerful laser system to replicate the fiery core of the sun in experiments that may ultimately offer humanity a clean source of energy.
After more than 50 years of experimentation, physicists are hoping to develop the first form of nuclear fusion technology that produces more energy than it consumes.
Within the next fortnight, researchers at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in California will fire 192 separate laser beams capable of generating 500 trillion watts – 1,000 times the power of the US national grid – for a fraction of a second.
The energy pulse will be concentrated on a tiny pellet of hydrogen in an attempt to mimic the reactions that take place inside the sun.
The scientists hope to refine the process over the next year until they trigger a nuclear reaction capable of producing large amounts of energy.
World is getting colder: It’s the sun, not CO2, that’s to blame
David J. Bellamy is a professor at three British universities and an officer in several conservation organizations. Mark Duchamp, a retired businessman, has investigated global- warming theory and written more than 100 articles.
After the wet and cold centuries of the Little Ice Age (around 1550-1850 A.D.), the world’s climate recuperated some warmth, but did not replicate the balmy period known as the Middle Age Warm Period (around 800-1300 A.D.), when the margins of Greenland were green and England had vineyards.
Climate began to cool again after World War II, for about 30 years. This is undisputed. The cooling occurred at a time when emissions of C02 were rising sharply from the reconstruction effort and from unprecedented development. It is important to realize that.
Related article: BBC abandons ‘impartiality’ on warming (Telegraph):
Again and again the BBC has been eager to promote every new scare raised by the advocates of man-made global warming. As late as August 28 this year it was still predicting that Arctic ice might soon disappear, just as this winter’ s refreezing was about to take ice-cover back to a point it was at 30 years ago.
By 1978 it had started to warm again, to everybody’s relief. But two decades later, after the temperature peaked in 1998 under the influence of El Nino, climate stopped warming for eight years; and in 2007 entered a cooling phase marked by lower solar radiation and a reversal of the cycles of warm ocean temperature in the Atlantic and the Pacific. And here again, it is important to note that this new cooling period is occurring concurrently with an acceleration in CO2 emissions, caused by the emergence of two industrial giants: China and India.
To anyone analyzing this data with common sense, it is obvious that factors other than CO2 emissions are ruling the climate. And the same applies to other periods of the planet’s history. Al Gore, in his famous movie “The Inconvenient Truth,” had simply omitted to say that for the past 420,000 years that he cited as an example, rises in CO2 levels in the atmosphere always followed increases in global temperature by at least 800 years. It means that CO2 can’t possibly be the cause of the warming cycles.
So, if it’s not CO2, what is it that makes the world’s temperature periodically rise and fall? The obvious answer is the sun, and sea currents in a subsidiary manner.
Read moreWorld is getting colder: It’s the sun, not CO2, that’s to blame
Powerful Solar Storm Could Shut Down U.S. for Months
“The race is on for better forecasting abilities, as the next peak in solar activity is expected to come around 2012.” …and this event will be much, much more serious than you will ever be told.
The elite knows what is coming and prepares for it:
– ‘Doomsday’ seed vault opens in Arctic
– Investors Behind Doomsday Seed Vault May Provide Clues to Its Purpose (Part 2)
– African seed collection first to arrive in Norway on route to Arctic seed vault
The elite has built for themselves huge underground shelters, even cities. (Do some research.)
Now you know where all that money went that the government cannot account for.
Has the government also been preparing for the people? No, they are disposable.
Solar storms can cause colorful auroras, often seen in higher latitudes on Earth. NASA
A new study from the National Academy of Sciences outlines grim possibilities on Earth for a worst-case scenario solar storm.
Damage to power grids and other communications systems could be catastrophic, the scientists conclude, with effects leading to a potential loss of governmental control of the situation.
The prediction is based in part on a major solar storm in 1859 that caused telegraph wires to short out in the United States and Europe, igniting widespread fires.
It was perhaps the worst in the past 200 years, according to the new study, and with the advent of modern power grids and satellites, much more is at risk.
“A contemporary repetition of the [1859] event would cause significantly more extensive (and possibly catastrophic) social and economic disruptions,” the researchers conclude.
‘Command and control might be lost’
Read morePowerful Solar Storm Could Shut Down U.S. for Months
NASA: A Giant Breach in Earth’s Magnetic Field
Dec. 16, 2008: NASA’s five THEMIS spacecraft have discovered a breach in Earth’s magnetic field ten times larger than anything previously thought to exist. Solar wind can flow in through the opening to “load up” the magnetosphere for powerful geomagnetic storms. But the breach itself is not the biggest surprise. Researchers are even more amazed at the strange and unexpected way it forms, overturning long-held ideas of space physics.
“At first I didn’t believe it,” says THEMIS project scientist David Sibeck of the Goddard Space Flight Center. “This finding fundamentally alters our understanding of the solar wind-magnetosphere interaction.”
The magnetosphere is a bubble of magnetism that surrounds Earth and protects us from solar wind. Exploring the bubble is a key goal of the THEMIS mission, launched in February 2007.
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The big discovery came on June 3, 2007, when the five probes serendipitously flew through the breach just as it was opening. Onboard sensors recorded a torrent of solar wind particles streaming into the magnetosphere, signaling an event of unexpected size and importance.
Right: One of the THEMIS probes exploring the space around Earth, an artist’s concept. [more]
“The opening was huge-four times wider than Earth itself,” says Wenhui Li, a space physicist at the University of New Hampshire who has been analyzing the data. Li’s colleague Jimmy Raeder, also of New Hampshire, says “1027 particles per second were flowing into the magnetosphere-that’s a 1 followed by 27 zeros. This kind of influx is an order of magnitude greater than what we thought was possible.”