HUGE solar flares . . .

[TeeYiYi]

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov

From June 16th:


This one from the 12th is scary.


What the hell does this mean? I'm worried about skin cancer. Any experts out there?

TYY

[Systematic Chaos]

1. Solar flares happen all the time, they're no biggie.

What IS a biggie is the ozone depletion in the upper atmosphere caused by human activity. Limit your sun exposure and use a good sunblock when needed. That's about all you can do.

[shraby]

3. Solar flares usually have an

eleven year cycle. They increase in intensity about every eleven years then die back down. Most they do is disrupt satellite and communications when there is a large flare.

[TeeYiYi]

6. Is this . . .

. . . the eleventh year? Are they peaking right now?

TYY

[Bill McBlueState]

8. the cycle

The cycle peaked in 2000-2001. So we're actually approaching the minimum.

[Dogmudgeon]

9. Overall solar activity: Up?

Yes, the fact that we're 4 years past peak hasn't been lost on me. And yet, some of the biggest CMEs (Coronal Mass Ejections -- "flares") in history have happened over the past two years, usually associated with large sunspots.

I have no intention of making sense out of it -- I assume that it's normal behavior for the Sun, whose behavior we've only really been monitoring for a century or so.

Have any serious hypotheses been advanced on why this is happening?

--bkl

[TeeYiYi]

4. Thanks . . .

. . . The sun feels hotter on my skin in the past few years. I don't remember it being like that when I was a kid. Must be the hole in the ozone. I think skin cancer rates are at an all time high.

Thanks again. :thumbsup:

TYY

[dwilson]

2. Thanks for the pics. Totally awesome. n/t

[TeeYiYi]

5. You're welcome. They are cool . . .

. . . be sure to check out the website. On the left side, click on 'Latest Images'. Tons of great pics.:thumbsup:

TYY

[hermetic]

7. Coincidentally, the movie "Inferno"

was just on tv. It's about huge solar flare that cooks the earth for a couple of hours. Pretty hokey movie but made you ask, could this actually happen? Eat, drink and be merry then.