Massive Solar Storm in 2011?

The last time the sun erupted into a massive solar storm, the year was 1859. Northern Lights appeared over Cuba and Hawaii, and electrical currents from the blast set telegraph offices on fire. But that was then. Scientists and government officials are worried a modern-day solar storm of the same proportion could wreak havoc on Earth, crippling communications and paralyzing power grids. Massive solar storms, resulting in huge coronal mass ejections, usually happen just before the sun goes through a quiet phase. NASA officials announced earlier this week that we’re poised to enter a below-average solar cycle soon, giving weight to concerns about how Earth would weather a solar storm like the one that happened in 1859. “A similar storm today might knock us for a loop,” said NASA physicist Lika Guhathakurta in a prepared statement. “Modern society depends on high-tech systems such as smart power grids, GPS, and satellite communications – all of which are vulnerable to solar storms.” Coronal mass ejections are responsible for the aurora phenomenon commonly referred to as the Northern Lights. Needless to say, auroras are usually seen in the polar regions of the planet as solar winds collide with Earth’s magnetic field. But before you get too worried, NASA said a fleet of spacecraft surrounding the sun warns us of solar storms within hours of when they strike. In the event of an uncommonly large storm, early-warning system would give power grids and high-tech grids more time to prepare. (Source: Amy Rolph, Photograph by NASA)

June 7, 2011: Largest CME Sun Ejection

Largest Coronal mass ejection happened today, June 7th, 2011. Source: http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/home.html

Active Solar Flares ahead

The recent spell of low solar activity is over. Sunspots are popping up across the solar disk and one of them, growing sunspot 1226, is crackling with C- and M-class solar flares. So far none of the blasts has been geoeffective, but this could change as the active region turns toward Earth in the days ahead. (Photograph by Karzaman Ahmad)

Sun flares: powerful or scary?

April 21, 2011 marks the one-year anniversary of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) First Light press conference, where NASA revealed the first images taken by the spacecraft. In the last year, the sun has gone from its quietest period in years to the activity marking the beginning of solar cycle 24. SDO has captured every moment with a level of detail never-before possible. The mission has returned unprecedented images of solar flares, eruptions of prominences, and the early stages of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). In this video are some of the most beautiful, interesting, and mesmerizing events seen by SDO during its first year up to March 10th 2011. On the one side this videos shows us the beauty of the universe and our dearest power source, the sun, and on the other side it shows us potential dangers that might interact with our fragile modern world of technology. In any case it is good to know about it.

New space radiation-storm warning service planned in Europe

International boffins are meeting in Blighty today with the aim of setting up a European solar radiation-storm warning service. With the Sun expected to belch forth increasing amounts of bad “space weather” in coming years, the scientists warn that billions of pounds’ worth of damage could be done to satellites in orbit. The new warning setup is to be called SPACECAST. “Space weather is a serious natural hazard and better forecasting is a priority for Europe,” says Professor Richard Horne of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), leading on the project for the UK. “This is especially important as we approach maximum levels of solar activity and increased numbers of magnetic storms. SPACECAST will provide forecasts of disruptive space weather events and issue warnings and alerts for periods of high risk.” According to Horne and his colleagues, the solar sunspot cycle is to peak over the next few years: however, the actual storms which affect electronic equipment in the vicinity of Earth don’t quite match this cycle and the storm peak is expected to lag about two years behind the sunspot maximum. The years 2013 to 2015 are expected to be especially stormy in space – with perhaps as many as 60 events per year that could cause serious problems. The European Union is especially keen to get a rad-storm service up and running as its new Galileo nav-sat constellation is set to come into service (at initial levels of capability) just as the storm cycle peaks. SPACECAST, which has EU funding of €2.5m so far, is to be up and running from 2012.

The risk to satellites has already been proven, with a particularly violent 2003 storm affecting some 47 spacecraft – and totally writing off one which had cost a cool $640m. Modern assessments of the famous Carrington super-storm of 1859 have suggested that another such monster would cause as much as $30bn of satellite damage should it strike today’s civilisation rather than the electronically primitive one of the mid-19th century. NASA, which has itself warned in recent times of the hazard of a devastating “space Katrina”, is involved with SPACECAST. Boffins from Finland, France, Belgium and Spain will also join the BAS on the project. (Source: http://www.sott.net)

Today’s sun flares

A full-disk multiwavelength extreme ultraviolet image of the sun taken by SDO on March 30, 2010. False colors trace different gas temperatures. Reds are relatively cool (about 60,000 Kelvin, or 107,540 F); blues and greens are hotter (greater than 1 million Kelvin, or 1,799,540 F). Credit: NASA/Goddard/SDO AIA Team. NASA’s recently launched Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, is returning early images that confirm an unprecedented new capability for scientists to better understand our sun’s dynamic processes. These solar activities affect everything on Earth. Some of the images from the spacecraft show never-before-seen detail of material streaming outward and away from sunspots. Others show extreme close-ups of activity on the sun’s surface. The spacecraft also has made the first high-resolution measurements of solar flares in a broad range of extreme ultraviolet wavelengths. “These initial images show a dynamic sun that I had never seen in more than 40 years of solar research,” said Richard Fisher, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “SDO will change our understanding of the sun and its processes, which affect our lives and society. This mission will have a huge impact on science, similar to the impact of the Hubble Space Telescope on modern astrophysics.” Launched on Feb. 11, 2010, SDO is the most advanced spacecraft ever designed to study the sun. During its five-year mission, it will examine the sun’s magnetic field and also provide a better understanding of the role the sun plays in Earth’s atmospheric chemistry and climate. Since launch, engineers have been conducting testing and verification of the spacecraft’s components. Now fully operational, SDO will provide images with clarity 10 times better than high-definition television and will return more comprehensive science data faster than any other solar observing spacecraft.