Solar Flare Heads Toward Earth/chance To See Northern Lights?

[tater2sacks]

In my other hobby as a radio operateer. I follow the solar activity as it effects my ability to talk to other place's Via ham/cb radio.

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New Sun News

Ez to understand way of new.

http://newyork.newsday.com/news/nation/solar-flare-heads-toward-earth-1.3837791

 

The space weather forecast for Earth looks a bit stormy this weekend, but scientists said not to worry.

A solar storm was due to arrive Saturday morning and last through Sunday, slamming into Earth's magnetic field. Scientists said it will be a minor event and they have notified power grid operators, airlines and other potentially affected parties.

"This isn't the mother of all anything," said forecaster Joe Kunches at the government's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo. "We don't see any ill effects to any systems."

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The storm began Thursday when the sun unleashed a massive flare that hurled a cloud of highly charged particles racing toward Earth at 3 million mph. It was the sixth time this year that such a powerful solar outburst has occurred; none of the previous storms caused major problems.

In severe cases, solar storms can cause power blackouts, damage satellites and disrupt GPS signals and high-frequency radio communications. Airlines are sometimes forced to reroute flights to avoid the extra radiation around the north and south poles brought on by solar storms.

In 1989, a strong solar storm knocked out the power grid in Quebec, causing 6 million people to lose electricity.

Juha-Pekka Luntama, a space weather expert at the European Space Agency, said utility and navigation operators "will certainly see something but they will probably find ways to deal with any problems" from the incoming storm.

The storm is part of the sun's normal 11-year cycle of solar activity, which is supposed to reach peak storminess next year.

There's a bright side to stormy space weather: It tends to spawn colorful northern lights as the charged particles bombard Earth's outer magnetic field. Shimmering auroras may be visible at the United States-Canada border and northern Europe this weekend, Kunches said.

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Main place for solar info.

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

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Side note:

Solar flare brings chance to see northern lights

http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Solar-flare-brings-chance-to-see-northern-lights-2683206.php

A huge solar flare -- the largest since 2005 -- may increase our chances this week to see the aurora borealis or northern lights.

Particles from Sunday's eruption began hitting Earth on Tuesday morning.

Michael Bakich, senior editor of Astronomy magazine, said Tuesday this may create displays of the northern lights for several days.

Geoff Chester, spokesman for the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., said the best chance to see the display was Tuesday night. Seeing the show doesn't require a telescope, or even binoculars.

"Go out just after dusk and look to the north," Alan MacRobert, editor at Sky & Telescope magazine, said Tuesday.

The flare is the latest evidence the sun is becoming more active, emerging from a period of few visible sunspots or solar flares.

The disturbances usually work on an 11-year cycle, with peak activity occurring every 11 years.

Bakich said observatories in recent weeks have seen an increase in the loops and columns of solar matter that can be seen along the sun's edges.

Chester said two sizeable solar flares have already occurred this month. The larger one erupted on Earth's surface Sunday.

The biggest solar flares are given the classification of X, Chester said. This one is slightly less than X.

X-rays traveling at the speed of light arrived on Earth eight minutes after the flare appeared, Chester said. The flare also produced proton ejections that can interfere with space satellite electronics, he said.

"The buildup on the outside of satellites is like static electricity," he said. "Unless you find a way to disperse them, they can fry electronics."

On Tuesday, the final arrival from the solar flare -- the particles that are part of a coronal mass ejection -- began about 10 a.m., Bakich said.

The particles, while not dangerous to humans, can interfere with telecommunications and radio systems. Lt. J. Paul Vance, spokesman for the Connecticut State Police, said Tuesday that because of prior preparations, the state police had not had communications problems.

Paul Estefan, emergency management director in Danbury, said he also was not aware of any communications problems.

The planet's magnetic poles pull the coronal mass ejection particles toward the poles. There, they collide with particles in the Earth's upper atmosphere. Those collisions create the lights of the aurora borealis.

Generally, you have to be in the far northern latitudes to see the aurora displays. But after major solar flares, people farther to the south can see them -- sometimes as far south as Arizona.

Chester said the only way to see them is to go and look.

"It's going to be a clear night," he said Tuesday. "There's a possibility you could see something

So look up at night you might see something.

If you do get a pic and post it.