Huge Solar Flare

[KevinB]

March 29, X class, lights are still on and the grid is good to go.

http://news.discovery.com/space/powerful-solar-flare-causes-radio-blackout-140331.htm

Tell me again about the all dangerous EMP. Tell me again how it isn't total BS again.

[KevinB]

Maybe it the reason for all the recent earthquakes and the problems with Obama care. Maybe not.

[GrizzlyGuy]

Tell me again about the all dangerous EMP. Tell me again how it isn't total BS again.

Certainly, allow me to enlighten you. A few points:

1) An X1 flare is an itty-bitty teeny-tiny flare that is barely worth mentioning, regardless of what the over-hyped media reports say. It doesn't even come close to making the top-15 list. Keep in mind that the scale is logrithmic (like the Richter scale) so an X28 (top of that list) is much-much-MUCH larger than 28 times what an X1 is. Sure, this flare knocked out the ham radio HF bands for a short time, but they quickly recovered and I was knocking off new band-countries like nothing even happened a few hour later.

2) The flare itself isn't what can knock out the power grid, it is the CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) that can show up many hours or days later. I'll save you the physics of how CMEs upset our geomagnetic field, causes a big geomagnetic storm, which in turn can induce large currents into long conductors such as power lines... and just point out the following: a CME may not be directed at us at all (most aren't). Also, the size of the flare doesn't necessarily correlate to the size of the CME.

Think of a CME as being a completely unaimed shot: the sun is a big sphere so it could head out in all kinds of directions, and only one of those directions is at us. A CME that is big enough to take down the grid and is directed at the Earth only happens about once every 100 years. The last one was in 1921. You can decide for yourself how much of a risk solar flares and CMEs are.

[monk]

http://news.discovery.com/space/powerful-solar-flare-causes-radio-blackout-140331.htm

One of the images says

Approximately an hour after the flare, the CME grew and continued to barrel into interplanetary space. Space weather forecasters don't expect that this CME will interact with the Earth's atmosphere as it is not Earth-directed. This observation was captured by SOHO's LASCO C3 instrument -- an occulting disk covers the sun to block out any glaring effect. By combining observations by the SDO, SOHO and other solar observatories, the connection between the sun's internal magnetic "dynamo", the solar cycle, flares and CMEs, solar physicists are slowly piecing together what makes our nearest star tick, hopefully solving some of the most persistent mysteries along the way.

[speedrrracer]

A CME that is big enough to take down the grid and is directed at the Earth only happens about once every 100 years.

Yup -- there was a biggie just 2 years ago, and went straight through Earth orbit, but we had passed that spot a week or so earlier. Would have torn us a new one. Here's the exec summary from UC Berkeley:

http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2014/03/18/fierce-solar-magnetic-storm-barely-missed-earth-in-2012/

[3GunFunShooter]

If want to be informed about solar activity go to www.solarham.com.
Constant updates on the sun, videos from satellites , pictures, links to other web sites.
Best site I have found for solar activity.
Also shows if and how the CME's will hit the earth with a time frame.
Ranks the flares as to the intensity C, M, X class.