MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

Solar Flare – If You go out in the Sun today you may get a big surprise

By

So, there I was minding my own business when my mate, Edward (he of the “I watch NASA TV for fun fame”) phoned and stridently informed me that I was a social inept miscreant who didn’t care for my fellow man as I had not put an article up about the impending Solar Flare that is predicted to hit Earth today at 14h00 UT (12h00 SA Time) – give or take 7 hours.

Sheesh Kebab you would think that Rocket Scientists could be a little bit more accurate than saying that the solar flare is travelling at almost 1,400 miles per second and it will light up our lives at around 12:00 pm (SA Time) give or take 7 hours – for all we know it could have passed by at 5:00 am this morning!

This is what NASA have to say about the event:

The sun erupted late on January 22, 2012 with an M8.7 class flare, an earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME), and a burst of fast moving, highly energetic protons known as a “solar energetic particle” event. The latter has caused the strongest solar radiation storm since September 2005 according to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center.

NASA’s Goddard Space Weather Center’s models predict that the CME is moving at almost 1,400 miles per second, and could reach Earth’s magnetosphere – the magnetic envelope that surrounds Earth – as early as tomorrow, Jan 24 at 9 AM ET (plus or minus 7 hours). This has the potential to provide good auroral displays, possibly at lower latitudes than normal.

Basically what this means is that higher than normal levels of radiation are expected to be around today and you would be advised to stay indoors reading MyPE. On the other hand you could also just put a higher than normal sunblock on when you venture outside.

The Solar Heliospheric Observatory captured the coronal mass ejection (CME) in this video (which shows the sun’s activity from January 19 to January 23). The CME is associate with an M8.7 class solar flare from AR1402. The end of the movie shows the interference caused by the onslaught of fast, energetic solar particles emitted from the sun. Credit: SOHO/ESA & NASA

Cutting through the jargon and putting the 24 January M Class Solar Flare into perspective:

Solar flares may seem like far-away events, but they can damage satellites and even ground-based technologies and power grids. Every 11 years, as the sun reaches its maximum activity they become bigger and more common, and that increases the chances that one will significantly affect Earth.

So what are these solar eruptions? A solar flare is basically an explosion on the surface of the sun ranging from minutes to hours in length. Large flares can release enough energy to power the entire United States for a million years. Flares happen when the powerful magnetic fields in and around the sun reconnect. They’re usually associated with active regions, often seen as sunspots, where the magnetic fields are strongest.

Flares are classified according to their strength. The smallest ones are B-class, followed by C, M and X, the largest. Similar to the Richter scale for earthquakes, each letter represents a ten-fold increase in energy output. So an X is 10 times an M and 100 times a C. Within each letter class, there is a finer scale from 1 to 9. C-class flares are too weak to noticeably affect Earth.

M-class flares can cause brief radio blackouts at the poles and minor radiation storms that might endanger astronauts. It’s the X-class flares that are the real juggernauts. Although X is the last letter, there are flares more than 10 times the power of an X1, so X-class flares can go higher than 9. The most powerful flare on record was in 2003, during the last solar maximum. It was so powerful that it overloaded the sensors measuring it. They cut out at X17, and the flare was later estimated to be about X45.

A powerful X-class flare like that can create long lasting radiation storms, which can harm satellites, and even give airline passengers flying near the poles small radiation doses. X flares also have the potential to create global transmission problems and worldwide blackouts.

The seriousness of an X-class flare pointed at Earth is why NASA and NOAA constantly monitor the sun. NASA’s Heliophysics fleet of spacecraft can now see the sun from every side and in many different wavelengths. This unprecedented coverage is enabling scientists to predict and detect space weather events like flares and CMEs with ever greater accuracy. With advance warning, governments and companies can take steps to protect their technological infrastructure, so that the worst scenarios will never happen.

The following two tabs change content below.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Google+ profileMy LinkedIn profileMy Flickr profileMy Pinterest profile

Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.

Reader Interactions

Comments