Discovery News, Irene Klotz, is reporting that in the near future we could be facing nasty solar storms caused by the Sun.
Really, wait what?? That sounds kinda scary, but wait, it gets better.
What we’ve always thought is that because of the sun’s eruptions and the strength of them, that the sun threatened power grids, disabled our satellites and scrambled radio signals. Today scientist using a fleet of solar-watching satellites has learned that thick gobs of solar plasma have easy and regular access to the earth’s magnetosphere due to a trick of nature.
What we’ve always believed is that we were safe inside of the earth’s magnetosphere. Why wouldn’t we, who even knows what a magnetosphere is! Well I don’t, and I don’t like it. :) What I am learning about this Magnetosphere is that it seems to be generated by the earth’s core and is somewhat responsible for life on this planet, blah blah there is a lot of other mumbo-jumbo. Now back to the article. I am just going to paste the important parts below.
Really, wait what?? That sounds kinda scary, but wait, it gets better.
What we’ve always thought is that because of the sun’s eruptions and the strength of them, that the sun threatened power grids, disabled our satellites and scrambled radio signals. Today scientist using a fleet of solar-watching satellites has learned that thick gobs of solar plasma have easy and regular access to the earth’s magnetosphere due to a trick of nature.
What we’ve always believed is that we were safe inside of the earth’s magnetosphere. Why wouldn’t we, who even knows what a magnetosphere is! Well I don’t, and I don’t like it. :) What I am learning about this Magnetosphere is that it seems to be generated by the earth’s core and is somewhat responsible for life on this planet, blah blah there is a lot of other mumbo-jumbo. Now back to the article. I am just going to paste the important parts below.
Scientists previously believed that when sun's magnetic field was aligned with Earth's, the planet was safely cocooned within its protective bubble. Not so, report researchers at this week's American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.
"It's exactly opposite of the way we thought," said David Sibeck, with NASA's Space Weather Laboratory at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "If all of this is true it should be that we're in for a much tougher time in the next 11 years than we have been in the past 11."
The sun has an 11-year cycle, which is next expected to peak in 2011 or 2012. During maximum periods of activity, the sun produces more flares and geomagnetic storms, which can blast Earth with powerful streams of electrically charged plasma.
The sun has an 11-year cycle, which is next expected to peak in 2011 or 2012. During maximum periods of activity, the sun produces more flares and geomagnetic storms, which can blast Earth with powerful streams of electrically charged plasma.
The sun's magnetic field flips direction every cycle, and the next solar maximum will occur when the field is unfavorably aligned with Earth's, scientists said.
Well that just sounds awful, doesn’t it? Well the next Paragraph is kinda scary, and then it gets a little bit better when we get to final outcome.
Well that just sounds awful, doesn’t it? Well the next Paragraph is kinda scary, and then it gets a little bit better when we get to final outcome.
With data taken by the five-member THEMIS satellite network, scientists have learned that huge blankets of solar particles -- 4,000 miles thick -- stream into Earth's magnetosphere via solar magnetic field lines that wrap around Earth, north to south, "like an octopus wraps its tentacles around its prey," said Jimmy Raeder, with the University of New Hampshire's Physics and Space Science Center.
Earth adopts the field lines as its own, incorporating the stowaway plasma into its sphere of space. When a solar storm strikes, the particles are energized.
"We had always thought the shields would be completely closed if the fields were aligned. There would be virtually no plasma coming in. What this shows is that it's really the opposite," Rader said.
"We had always thought the shields would be completely closed if the fields were aligned. There would be virtually no plasma coming in. What this shows is that it's really the opposite," Rader said.
The discovery will be incorporated into computer models and simulations used to predict adverse space weather.
"We'll have more confidence in the future that when we observe things coming from the sun we'll come to a (forecaster), provide those observations and ask him 'What's going to happen next?'" Sibeck said.
"We'll have more confidence in the future that when we observe things coming from the sun we'll come to a (forecaster), provide those observations and ask him 'What's going to happen next?'" Sibeck said.
The out come of all of this is that we are trying to be able to predict such occurrences. If we can predict these occurrences then we can protect our spacecraft, tell astronauts when it’s not a good time to spacewalk. Lastly we can alert a power company when there may be a transformer blowout due to these.
All of this makes me wonder what else we do not realize could go wrong with the suns solar maximum is directed at earth. And there is friggin Plasma and other crap wrapping around us. I mean what should we do, buy stronger sun block? Wear more hats, move under ground. Who can say, we’ll just have to wait and see.
For Further Redaing on the Earth and what is happpening here, www.discoverynews.com
