7 Major solar flares

[stubeeef]

could be a bad week for cell phones, sun is kicking it up.

Link

An ongoing series of seven major solar flares, including two on Saturday, could disrupt communications on Earth and generate colorful sky shows for people at high northern latitudes for the next several days.

Even more serious effects are possible early in the week.

The spate of activity from the Sun is being generated by a large sunspot named 798. Sunspots are cooler and darker regions of pent-up magnetic activity. When they unleash their energy, it's a bit like the top coming off a shaken champagne bottle.

The sunspot is just rotating into view, so its energy has been directed sideways and not directly at Earth. In coming days, if more major flares erupt as forecasters expect, they'll head right at us and radio blackouts, cell phone dropouts and other communications disruptions are more likely, scientists said.

Solar flares send radiation to Earth in about 8 minutes. Hours later, clouds of charged particles can engulf the planet. If the magnetic field of a storm is oriented opposite to our planet's protective magnetic field, gaps are created and radiation leaks to the planet's surface, potentially threatening astronauts aboard the International Space Station, sometimes shorting out satellites, and even causing terrestrial power grids to trip.

Solar activity is at "very high levels," according to NOAA's Space Environment Center (SEC).

There have been seven major flares in recent days, including a tremendous X-17 eruption Wednesday. An event Friday evening was an X-6. On Saturday, an X-1 and an X-2 erupted. Even an X-1 can cause severe disruptions.

 

[Xtremehkr]

I blame the ASPCA.

 

[ham_man]

I blame the ASPCA.

I blame George Bush.

This is some cool stuff.

Link to movie

 

[Daveway]

Awesome movie, should've gone on longer.

Looks like I have one more excuse not to go outside this week.

 

[MacSA]

Awesome movie, should've gone on longer.

Looks like I have one more excuse not to go outside this week.

It probably stopped working after that flare LOL............Other spacecraft are having problems:

NASA's ACE spacecraft, which measures the solar wind, is temporarily overwhelmed by the ongoing radiation storm. Solar wind values reported above are unreliable until further notice.

http://www.spaceweather.com/

A major geomagnetic storm is currently underway.

 

[dcv]

My mobile phone has actually been saying 'no access' since yesterday evening... i thought it was just the Orange 3G service being crap again!

 

[dephlt]

so that explains why my wireless network keeps on dropping out
- good movie

 

[XNine]

Speaking of movies, I'm going to bet this will be the next step for Hollywood's natural disaster flicks. I hate hollywood.