Giant Solar Flare Hits U.S., Canada

[NNN0LHI]

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20050912/sunflare.html

Sept. 12, 2005— A rowdy sunspot cluster hurled a record-breaking flare into space on Wednesday, blacking out all high- and low-frequency radio communications on both American continents, causing power surges, blinding satellites and lighting up aurorae, and more trouble is likely on the way, say experts.

A massive initial X-ray flare on Sept. 7 was immediately followed by an eruption of solar material that broke free from the sun at a speed of 5.8 million miles per hour, the speediest seen in 20 years of CME observations by the National Center for Atmospheric Research's High Altitude Observatory in Hawaii.

Earth and near-Earth space was first hit with X-rays, followed by an ongoing magnetic storm and hard radiation.

The sunspot cluster causing all the trouble was just coming around the edge of the sun last week. Now it has rotated with the sun into better view and is showing no signs of calming down, said Larry Combs, a space weather forecaster with the National Oceanic and Space Administration's Space Environment Center.

"This particular region (on the sun) is just now reaching the center of the sun," said Combs. "It's just now getting into the bull's-eye."

I guess locusts are next?

[ananda]

1. is the sun..

.. trying to tell us something? eek

Sue

[IChing]

11. Power is out in LA

Is the universe trying to tell us to treat our fellow man as brother?

[Im_Your_Huckleberry]

34. actually, i overheard someone say

it was a cut power line. sorry, no cosmic re-alignment taking place.

[lilymidnite]

2. alien terra!!!

Oh goodie! Auroras!!

on edit:

K-index of 6, meaning visible auroras as far south as Northern Plains, New England.

[Delphinus]

12. Dang!

What's the boy king gonna do against this terraist? The sun better watch out!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

35. I looked last night

between 1 a.m and 2 a.m Eastern time, in northern Virginia, latitude just about 39 degrees north. Too many lights in the big city to see anything, and I don't know if they would have been visible anyway. I've never seen them here, despite much looking. I hear you can get out to Loudoun County and see them. Hard to believe, with the subdivisions there. Plus, that gasbag Santorum no doubt obscures any incoming enlightenment.

[spinbaby]

3. Does this affect us?

I've heard of major solar flares before and never noticed any difference in anything--no one burning to a crisp in the streets, no interference with radio. What's a solar flare supposed to do?

Come to think of it, it'll probably get the astrology buffs all excited.

[NNN0LHI]

8. It can disrupt communications and shut down entire power grids n/t

[havocmom]

16. and make for some nice show in the sky at night: auroras!

This site: http://www.spaceweather.com/ is rather interesting and educational. They also have a service you can sign up for where they will email you when there is a solar flare or some interesting things happening in the sky. It is pretty cool.

People can upload photos, so it is often fun to check when there is a lot of auroral activity. People can get some amazing pictures of the sky.

Then, NOAA has a page showing the magnititude of auroral activity. I generally run it on a tab when the activity is high. Helps me decide when to stay up late for sky watching (also people watching).
http://sec.noaa.gov/pmap/index.html. FWIT, we are at level 10 activity right now.

[mccoyn]

18. I saw an aurora Saturday night.

I was camping up in northern Michigan last weekend. This is only the second time I've ever seen an aurora because I live in a bright southern Michigan city. This one wasn't as impressive as the one I saw as a kid.

[WhiteTara]

32. time brightens child hood memories?

my house is smaller than it was when I was a kid too. :hi:

[bananas]

31. You might be interested in these aurora alert email lists

that predict when and where the aurora will be visible.
They are the "aurorawarn" and "aurorawatch" email lists,
you can look at the archives to see what the messages look like.
http://spacew.com/mailman/listinfo

They also have a discussion forum
http://spacew.com/forum

and sighting reports plotted on a map http://www.spacew.com/www/aurora.php

[malaise]

28. This is tangental

but can the hurricane geeks tell me if Ophelia is likely to affect DC. I had this dream that DC was hit by a hurricane - maybe NOLA has taken over my subconscious.

[kostya]

40. Dreams usually represent unfulfilled wishes, and believe me there

are plenty of us that wish a hurricane would hit certain parts of D.C., if ya know what I mean.... :) - K

[malaise]

41. I know what yah mean n/t

[5X]

9. Can cause widespread radio blackouts

and power outages.

For reference:

<http://prop.hfradio.org>

[Maine-ah]

4. could something like this have something to do with the power

outages being reported in Los Angeles? Or would it be more widespread than that?

[Ediacara]

5. Hmmm

Maybe this has something to do with the power outages?

[kahleefornia]

6. Nice catch NNNOLHI!

That must be the power problem in LA.

[leveymg]

7. All that happened last week.

The world is taking its own sweet time to end, I guess.

[Eurobabe]

10. so that's why cingular has been so flakey the past few days??

n/t

[leveymg]

14. I haven't been happy with service since it took over AT&T

Solar flares. Not.

[420inTN]

38. I've had Cingular for seven (7) years and haven't had a complaint...

... well, other than my house being in a dead cell area (close to an airport). however, as phones improve, so does my reception. my razr is the first phone i've had where i could get moderately decent reception at home. honestly, my poor cell reception at home is the only reason why i still have a land-line.

[Gregorian]

13. And we're fighting over oil.

It gives me happiness just to think about something so mammoth that noone can alter it at all.
3.8 million mph.
The oil on this planet would vaporize in a split fraction of time if it were so much as put in close proximity to the sun. And here we have spent years of agonizing effort to fight off one little evil man and his gang of meanies. Their evil rivals the greatness of the sun.

[htuttle]

15. Didn't notice any trouble in the industrial FM band here

Neither in the 800 or 450 Mhz bands. :shrug:

[htuttle]

17. I spoke too soon

450 MHz band is out. 800 Mhz still apparently fine.

[htuttle]

19. 450 Mhz band slowing coming back

Still full of static -- 3 by 4 or so.

[htuttle]

21. LOL! I stand corrected yet again

We just had a bad mike. Unfortunate timing...(happened right after I read this thread...).

Nevermind.

[Chicago Democrat]

20. So, is LA power outage related to this>?

and why didn't we hear about it earlier?

[Zhade]

22. This is really odd - my work (DirecTV) had NO losses due to this.

Usually, these would cause us to lose signals. Haven't lost one due to this today.

[Az_lefty]

23. It's the end of the World as we know it...

we've been heading in this direction since a trained monkey stole the last two elections.

[Deja Q]

24. Sweet, auroras are cool! Fun to watch and soothing to the soul.

THOSE mean more in life than TEMPORARY power outages and satellite fluffs caused by its effects.

[VegasWolf]

25. Bad headline! That would be one hell of a long solar flare to HIT

the US. Ouch!

[bananas]

26. I posted a heads-up about this last week

"5 X-class solar flares in past 2 days, more to come"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=228x12333

[Ilsa]

27. I wonder what kind of gear Bushco will order from Halliburton

so he can send troops to invade the sun? ;)

[hardrainfallin]

29. tin foil. n/t

[WhiteTara]

33. lol n/t

[applegrove]

30. Perhaps that is what erased all the institutional knowledge in the WH,

Pentagon, Fema, State Department..etc the Monday Katrina hit?

[Scurrilous]

36. My cable has been out since Saturday...

...called the 1-800 number and was told the outage was due to weather issues. Are giant solar flares considered weather?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

37. "A rowdy sunspot cluster...."

Rowdy?

Don't come home from drinkin' with flarin' on your mind.

[Xipe Totec]

39. Oh my God! the Sun just went out!

Oh, wait....

...it's just past sunset.

Never Mind!