Comments on: First earthward-heading solar flare of the cycle

By: Magnetic Field Metaphor « Flickr Comments

Magnetic Field Metaphor « Flickr Comments — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 11:12:10 +0000

[...] First earthward-heading solar flare of the cycle | Bad Astronomy (blogs.discovermagazine.com) [...]

By: magnetic field lines of our souls « Flickr Comments

magnetic field lines of our souls « Flickr Comments — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 11:05:32 +0000

[...] First earthward-heading solar flare of the cycle | Bad Astronomy (blogs.discovermagazine.com) [...]

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 11:08:54 +0000

[...] [...]

By: Eric H K

Eric H K — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 18:27:24 +0000

so does this mean
i dont have to worry about getting on flight on 17th?
my friends have been teasing me about this
supposedly some mass ejections are hitting earth!?!?

By: Daniel J. Andrews

Daniel J. Andrews — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:45:20 +0000

I looked for the northern lights last night…we often see them from this location when the sun is active even if it is only a blue glow coming up above the trees. No luck though. Of course it was Valentine’s Day and I was expected elsewhere so couldn’t spend a whole lot of time outside–and when temps are below -25 C, it can be difficult to persuade that special someone to sit outside with me.

By: MaxP

MaxP — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:58:30 +0000

@22: Jepp, Aurora. I saw one here in Southern Germany. It was a remarkable sight, the one and only time I have seen it. Nothing else happened at that time. But I did not have wi-fi at that time.

@Phil: By the way, I love this blog.

By: Bill3

Bill3 — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 12:30:36 +0000

I’m also curious about this quote:

“…some huge flares have blasted out 10% the energy of the entire Sun!”

I’m thinking you threw this one out there as a quick hyperbole without realizing it leaves one with the impression that if this happened, oh say 10 times, the sun would be all burnt out.

By: Android OS news » Sun Produces First Cycle 24 X-Class Solar Flare

Android OS news » Sun Produces First Cycle 24 X-Class Solar Flare — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:34:43 +0000

[...] flare, the strongest type of flare event. This comes from sunspot group 1158, which produced an M-class solar flare on Sunday. The EVE X-ray imager on the solar dynamics observatory shows a bright explosion on the sun, so [...]

By: Sunspot 1158 – größte Flare seit 4 Jahren | Skywatch Melle

Sunspot 1158 – größte Flare seit 4 Jahren | Skywatch Melle — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 10:02:29 +0000

[...] First earthward-heading solar flare of the cycle | Bad Astronomy (blogs.discovermagazine.com) [...]

By: DrFlimmer

DrFlimmer — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 09:52:41 +0000

@ 21 Mike

Since you and we are still around, you see: “Not that much”.

Some beautiful aurorae probably. Maybe some satellites failed. But that should have been it. (Although, I don’t know and am just guessing)

By: Roy Lofquist

Roy Lofquist — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 05:49:21 +0000

There ain’t no such animal as a magnetic field line. It is an illustrative aid used in textbooks analogous to contour lines on a map. This misconception has lead to considerable mischief.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 05:14:38 +0000

Not being a close follower of cosmic events, I’m curious as to what effects did the Sun’s “hissy fit” have on the Earth in 2003?

By: Ld Elon

Ld Elon — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 04:44:35 +0000

A change to one drop, can change all the drops around it, and so on and so on, lol mr scientist.
Un being where talking sub atomics, you see the flaw in the minicule understanding, dont you.

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 04:44:23 +0000

@ 17 Dartigen: I’d think that that’d need to be a massive flare indeed (something on the order of Larry Niven’s “Inconstant Moon”) to do that. Satellites are affected by flares and CMEs directly in various ways, from orbital decay due to atmospheric expansion to induced currents that fry their circuitry to plain-ol’ brute-force x-ray radiation. Solar activity can also affect the ionosphere, which could cause interference between satellites and the ground.
I could be wrong, but I’d think that any solar activity powerful enough to disrupt wi-fi and similar wireless tech on the ground would have already brought down the world’s power grids. No one needs wi-fi when you have no power (and no internet).

By: windi

windi — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 04:07:54 +0000

Well, In 2003 that hissy fit wasn’t aimed directly at earth. They were over the limb. I agree they we’re massive flares X-18 to X-45 if I remeber correctly but we(the earth) were not in their path yet we had effects anyway. As of 10:30pm on 2-14-11 an X-2.2 was hurling our way. The Sun is not finished yet as they expect more. Yes, from Spaceweather.com and NOAA. What I find most interesting is I looked for posssible blackouts because of the new flare as well as the coronal hole effects we are currently under as that would cause geoeffective events and found that many utilities have decided they were gonna have planned blackouts tomorrow and service this week. Curious as that is what would be needed to protect the grid. For anyone who would like to check out the status of the sun..try spaceweather.com and Space weather now as well as Today’s Space weather.

By: dartigen

dartigen — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 02:23:13 +0000

Any word about the effect on wireless/WiFi? I’ve known about flares affecting satellite internet for years (there’s a reason why satellite internet should only be for times when you can’t use anything else), but I’ve heard rumour that big enough flares can wreak havoc on mobile networks and WiFi.

By: Ken

Ken — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 23:32:35 +0000

some huge flares have blasted out 10% the energy of the entire Sun

Please clarify. Do you mean power? If not, how are you measuring the Sun’s energy in this case?

By: Bob

Bob — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:48:33 +0000

What about the guy, I think at Purdue, who has correlated radioactive isotopic half-lives to solar activity (variations in solar neutrino flux). High time to get to measuring some half-lives?!?

By: noen

noen — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:39:46 +0000

Solar flares. Sometimes they flare up, sometimes they don’t.

You can’t explain that.

By: Celsius1414

Celsius1414 — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:32:53 +0000

Phew! I thought at first you were talking about my trackback, which is the #6 comment.

By: Gonçalo Aguiar

Gonçalo Aguiar — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:31:37 +0000

If global warming was severe in the last years, then I can’t imagine how will it be in a solar maximum that is coming.

“(…) and the second will be buffered by the Earth’s magnetic field. ”

What happens if it doesn’t? I mean… 2012 Doomsayers pick this up a lot of times!

By: noen

noen — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:30:06 +0000

This is off topic but I’d like to get Phil’s input on this.

Tyche, Giant Hidden Planet, May Exist In Our Solar System
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/14/tyche-hidden-planet_n_823028.html

“We may have lost Pluto, but it looks like we might be getting Tyche.

“Scientists may soon be able to prove the existence of the gas giant, which could be four times the size of Jupiter, according to astrophysicists John Matese and Daniel Whitmire from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The two first proposed Tyche’s existence in order to explain a change in path of comets entering the solar system, according to The Independent.”

Given HuffPo’s record I wouldn’t trust them if they said the sky was blue. How accurate is this report?

By: Number 6

Number 6 — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:28:22 +0000

@Larian LeQuella and @Erik…..Loved your responses!…I guess I’d better make this my one and only “data miniing” incident, otherwise Phil may drop me down a wormhole.

By: Erik

Erik — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:58:45 +0000

@#6 – You’re tempting me to write a program that creates FUD from Phil’s posts. =P

By: Larian LeQuella

Larian LeQuella — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:39:19 +0000

Nice quote mining Number 6. You sure you didn’t work for AiG in a previous life?