Tag Archives: Solar Flares

Scientists warn Solar Flares are ramping up

Solar Flares

Luke 21:25-26 ““And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

Important Takeaways:

  • 6 MASSIVE solar flare eruptions have SHOOK the Earth; Know the solar storm danger
  • February 22, it was reported that a new sunspot has emerged on the Sun and it appears to be extremely unstable. The sunspot AR3234 was first spotted on the Earth-facing side of the Sun on Sunday and ever since, it has been growing continuously. Since Monday, it has caused as many as six M-class solar flares with no indication of stopping. These flares have bombarded the upper atmosphere of the Earth with radiation that has caused continuous radio blackouts for low frequency waves. Above all, there is a fear that in the coming days, there could be a massive solar storm event caused by the sunspot.
  • Such solar storms can potentially damage satellites, break down mobile networks and internet services, cause power grid failures and corrupt sensitive ground-based electronics. But it is too early to say whether this can happen or not. For now, astronomers are closely monitoring the situation around this sunspot.

Read the original article by clicking here.

Solar probe reveals sun’s tiny ‘campfires’ in closest-ever photos

By Joey Roulette

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A solar probe built by the European Space Agency and NASA has delivered the closest photos ever taken of the sun’s surface, revealing a landscape rife with thousands of tiny solar flares that scientists dubbed “campfires” and offering clues about the extreme heat of the outermost part of its atmosphere.

“When the first images came in, my first thought was, ‘This is not possible – it can’t be that good,'” David Berghmans, principal investigator for the Solar Orbiter spacecraft’s ultraviolet imager at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, told reporters on Thursday.

The spacecraft, launched from Florida in February, snapped the images in late May using the probe’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager as it orbited nearly 48 million miles (77 million km) from the sun’s surface, or roughly halfway between the sun and Earth.

The “campfires” are believed to be tiny explosions, called nanoflares, and could explain why the sun’s outer shield, the corona, is 300 times hotter than the star’s surface. Scientists are awaiting more data from the spacecraft’s other instruments to know for sure.

“We’ve never been closer to the sun with a camera, and this is just the beginning of the long epic journey of Solar Orbiter,” said Daniel Müller, ESA’s Solar Orbiter project scientist.

Scientists typically have relied upon Earth-based telescopes for closeups of the sun’s surface. But Earth’s atmosphere limits the amount of visible light needed to glean views as intimate as those obtained by the Solar Orbiter.

The spacecraft also carries plasma-sampling instruments to offer researchers further data.

“That combination really allows us to make links and connections to what’s happening on the sun and what’s happening at the spacecraft,” said Holly Gilbert, Solar Orbiter project scientist at NASA.

Solar Orbiter’s primary mission of examining the sun’s polar regions will help researchers understand the origins of the solar wind, charged particles that blast through our solar system and affect satellites and electronics on Earth.

(Reporting by Joey Roulette in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham)

White House Prepares for Solar Flares and Other Space Weather Events

The U.S. Government has released its National Space Weather Strategy showing a multiagency plan that details how the U.S. will prepare for and deal with a massive EMP from Space Weather.  

An EMP or geomagnetic solar storm event has long been talked about in the media but steps are being taken now to show how serious this is to the government.

The six-step plan requires government agencies, schools, the media, the insurance industry, nonprofits, and more to work together.

“This is a real and present danger,” the White House’s assistant director for space weather told the Houston Post.   Back in 1859, a huge solar storm did impact Earth and caused some sparking telegraph lines. If a geomagnetic storm as strong as that one were to strike today it would likely cause $600 billion to $2.6 trillion worth of damage in the United States alone, according to a recent study.

NASA says that we had a scary near miss when we were nearly hit by two plasma clouds in 2012.  “If it had been hit, we would still be picking up the pieces,” one physicist says.

According to news reports, the White House’s new plan calls for the U.S. to get better at predicting space weather, shore up our infrastructure against EMPs and more. These plans, may truly be needed: The Post quotes NASA as stating there’s a 12% chance of a giant solar flare in the next 10 years.

In a  report released by the United Kingdom’s Department of Business Innovation and Skills said that the Earth can indeed experience a massive solar storm, with mankind having only 12 hours to prepare for such a potentially disastrous event.

To read the full plan you can go to: https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/final_nationalspaceweatherstrategy_20151028.pdf