As the Sun Awakens, NASA Keeps a Wary Eye on Space Weather

Originally posted by fixer1967
"The sun is waking up from a deep slumber", and I have a feeling it is getting up on the wrong side of the bed. I remember reading somewhere that if we got hit by a big enough blast it could reset technology 200 plus year. It could even fry the computer in our car. I guess only time will time.

cool then maybe we can solve those pesky spirals in the sky and see if it is a regular phenomenon or a 2nd stage rocket.

EDIT TO ADD: @Space Cadet

Tropical storms within the Gulf have a tendency to gain quite a bit of strength. It is, relatively speaking, a shallow [large] body of water. That said however, for some reason that I do not quite understand, most of those major storms spend much of their energy just prior to making landfall. It has something to do with the shallowness of the water at the coast but I do not understand the mechanism... sorry.

The Gulf of Mexico is always warmer than the East Coast, and that's even with the East Coast having the Gulf Stream.

I don't think anyone knows what effect the oil will have on the upcoming hurricane season, especially since the Gulf seems to have a certain "subset" of its own rules so to speak. Some have suggested the darkness of the oil will cause even greater heating of the waters which will support stronger storms... on average.

I've also wondered if the heat from the oil itself, as it comes out of the earth, over this extended time period, will not have some [minor] effect on the overall temperature of the Gulf of Mexico. When considering the effects of water temperatures on hurricanes and their strength, every degree of water temperature matters... on average.

Regardless, it's gonna be "interesting", and we will undoubtedly learn a lot along the way.

Keep in mind though: There may not be ANY hurricanes in the Gulf this year. Or, if there are, they may only be Cat 1's. No one knows. Early season predictions are notoriously inaccurate and this one is driven almost entirely by El Nino's disappearance. I don't disagree that that is a major factor in both the number of storms and their strength, but it is not the only factor.

When we consider long range weather forecasts we should probably not forget those "butterfly wings in China"

[edit on 6/6/10 by Geeky_Bubbe]

The sun is responsible for the winds and weather on earth !

reply to post by space cadet


As in many stories about any subject you can think of--there is always more to the story. You can bet your life there is more going on with the sun spot activity than what is being told to us. Soon enough though, the sun's activity will overcome anything the controlled press can do to calm people down. The NASA boys know what's coming, and so will the sheeple soon enough.

The right flare at the right time, and we'll be riding bicycles everywhere. Most people don't have a clue, but just fact check history, and the big flares have already happened, and the authorities know how bad it can be. Soon the rest of society wuill know.

Well it sounds bad.
I mean if our last defense line is NASA, you can prepare your canned food -_-

reply to post by Haydn_17

That would actually be awesome! Imagine for the first time since WW2 the human race living without the fear in the back of our minds that we could be killed in a milisecond by a nucular detonation simply because we dont have the technological ability any more... THE AGE OF THE HIPPIE RETURNS .....

Wait..... that would also mean no more XBOX ....... NOOOOOOO!!!

The idea of a significant solar storm doing long-term and lasting damage to our grid and attached electrical systems, is something we need to think about seriously.

This Website is a good review of past events, and can give you some indication of the scope of these events, even though we're facing the possibility of the upcoming solar event producing much worse conditions.

Our transport systems now use GPS for transoceanic transport. If the GPS satellites are damaged in a severe solar storm, there will have to be a quick return to antiquated methods of navigation. Satellites do so much for the people every day that we need to start thinking about the possibility of losing them.

One thing many of us have lived through is a power outage. We know the power will be back on in hours, or days. Now think about living where you live without power for an extended period of time. Solar storms will be ongoing throughout 2012, with severe storms likely to occur more than once. Knowing this, the utility companies will not be able to restore power to people when they are aware that another storm is likely. This isn't a few blocks or neighborhood that will be affected, it'll be most of the planet. With everyone scrambling for resources simultaneously to get their grids back up and running, it is likely to break down into chaos within the logistics of it all.

This of everything you use every day that requires power in one form or another. Now think of it not working when you go to use it. This may not be the end of the world, but it'll certainly be inconvenient for a lot of people for quite some time.

That seems like it could happen. Definately not out of the option. Personally, I wouldnt mind the technology getting screwed. It makes our lives more complicated than they need to be. Im down to live in the woods anyday.
Btw Haydn. I like you avatar(if thats what you call it)
Im a LOTR fan myself and yours is quite funny(especially since the words match the faces)
reply to post by Haydn_17

In 1993 we had a rare blizzard here in North Ga, there wasn't even a call for any snow to accumulate, and instead woke up to 12 ft drifts, trees down everywhere, no power, no cable, no phones. I was very suprised at my towns efforts to help each other, the local radio station was announcing who needed help, and those who had trucks capable of getting to them would either rescue them, or take them candles and food items. In the begining of the ordeal it was kind of nice to see everyone pull together. But after a couple of weeks the snow was gone, so was the community 'spirit'. Power was still out in many areas of town, you couldn't buy gas, it takes power to run the pumps, the grocers were sold out of non freezer items for the most part, no deliveries were being accepted until the coolers and freezers could be operated. In the area of the public hospital there was power, but hardly anywhere else.

People got ugly. I saw a woman backhand another woman over breaking in line at one of the few convience stores that was operating, they were both buying up whatever foods they could, nothing really was left, but you had to eat. Registers could not be run, no power, they were figuring by hand, no credit cards could be taken, so you had to have cash on hand, couldn't go to an ATM, no power. Every time you turned around, the lack of power stopped most.

I had no problems really, we grow our own garden, had plenty of canned foods, gas and kerosene heat, a fireplace, we buried what frozen foods we had in the snow, but local dogs ate all of that in the first night. But our neighbors were in sad shape.

It was nearly a month before all the power was restored to everyone, then a hurricane swept through and we were all out of power again, for about 2 weeks in my area, but I think everyone had learned a lot during that blizzard, and were more prepared, they learned to keep not just one or two candles on hand, but enough for a while, and canned foods, water, extra gas, ect.

I never forgot, and to this day I keep plenty of supplies on hand, my husband was in Iraq during both the blizzard and the hurricane outages, and he thinks I am silly about stocking up on candles and food and water, but he just doesn't know how it really was.

Massive solar flares have happened in the past and will happen again, now that Nasa has stepped up to the plate on the solar activity we are having now, I think I will go back and get a few more supplies.....

reply to post by space cadet


Thats the craziest thing i've ever seen. The most shocking and probably scariest aswell.
Whats the worst case scenario we are dealing with here? No power? Combusting into thin air? Baking to death slowly?

Anyone who specializes in this field wanna sort me out some info?

I found This Video to do with the matter.

[edit on 7-6-2010 by TechUnique]

Something big is coming...I quit going to school!

I have thought a lot about the scenario of solar flares and their effect on technology. Somebody mentioned cycling around as cars won't go... it sounds so easy, but I think we will be in sh#t street if it really happens. I imagine it could put us humans straight back to the dark ages.

Imagine, a solar flare fries all electronics. No electricity, no cars... so what... also, no fresh water (needs pumps)... sewage stop flowing (needs pumps and treatment)... no money (ATMs don't function), no security systems, no computers and networks, no radios... no food (if you rely on shops for your food).

Next thing you will have raids of people stealing everything in sight. Disease will break out. TPTB will not be able to communicate with the population to tell them where to go or what to do. Police cruisers will not be cruising, no ambulance or emergency services. It will be every person for himself.

And just in case it does not sound bad enough... it will last for a great many years. The factories cannot just make new computers, new pumps, new engines, cause the factories will also be zapped. How many people can still build motors from scratch (grinders, mills, and other electrical tools won't work)? Who can still take a piece of iron ore and turn it into steel without the help of electrical smelters, etc?

Okay, it is just my imagination, but I believe we are way too reliant on electricity and electronics. Imagine we lose all the computers of the world in one day... who still remembers what a library looks like, and most books in libraries are quite outdated. There won't be hard drive, solid state memory, or computers to retrieve data. Very scary thought.

But as for today, the sun is shining, let's hope whatever happens, happens in such a way that most inteligent people survive, and the buggers in the TPTB don't. Maybe we will have peace in the future :-)

Originally posted by g146541

Originally posted by captiva

If its technology that is under threat...why cant we live without that technology, we have before. or have all the sattalites etc been launched in the time period when the sun was at its minimum?

My guess is we are dependant on our technology more now than ever and we have more satellites in the sky too.
Think about if you could not use anything electric or even battery powered, no light no phone no motor car, not a single luxury. No computer 0.o

The higher the order of the system, the more possibilities for catastrophic breakdown. This is why colin powell drove for digital (non analog) public address systems, ie., television. It may be part of the plan. Just another planned breakdown. In the first place, it enables more 911 type media edit wipes to be constructed. Since a break down is expected, it yields precious time to get it right. No more embarrassing nose-of-plastic-radome emerging through steel building, intact.

I never thought life may be nothing more than getting away from the profane use of electricity.

If the breakdowns give more of us the ability to adapt, that's good. Also, not everything in the sky is just for satellite 'media'. Much of it's military, secret, stuff we'll never know about it until it hits us. Therefore, perhaps some breakdowns are of an order higher than the lowly levels stalked by puny power-grubbing man. Sometimes you can feel the chains snap.

I think alongside the efforts to curtail any excessive damage to infrastructure from this new, or at least as yet unfamiliar space weather we will soon be experiencing, it might also be a good idea to look deeper into the possibility of harnessing the very energies which may cause overloads and surges.
Over the years of human technological advancement, we have a history of turning dangers into tools, waving the flag of progress in the face of disaster. Perhaps in order to counter this new worry, this fresh danger, we need to apply ourselves to adapting our technology to do more than just weather the storm, but gain power from it. This could be benificial to our species if we deal with it properly !

reply to post by space cadet

Yup,if it's something that cannot be fixed ,politicians sit around and talk about what to do...

Yup,politicians talk too much about nothing important,I mean,what are they gonna do,tell someone else to do something about something that can't be fixed?.

Yup!.

Not totally on topic...but if technology were to be rendered useless,it would probably have a positive impact on the unemployment problem,since they would have to hire a lot of people to do things the hard way if they wanted to get anything done.

No more email,we gotta send a messenger.

No more computer,we gotta do this paperwork by hand.

No more scanner,we gotta sort and keep track of everything manually.

No more cel-phones,I gotta go visit my family if I want to talk to them.

No more online banking or ATM's,we gotta get off of our butts and actually put some effort into conducting our day to day business...

In a way,losing a lot of things we take for granted would force us to stop taking a lot of other things for granted.

Not entirely a bad thing for us,or the planet.

We were getting everything done the hard way a long time ago.

What's wrong with going there again?,it did actually work once,and it will again.

reply to post by space cadet


Nice to see that Earth is recognizing the Stars/Sun as an EXISTING celestial object, wonder if it has anything to do with the most recent comets? that went into the Sun last week? It really doesnt seem that hard to believe that one celestial object such as the Sun would interact with another such as the Earth, especially in the condition Earth is in, THANKS BP if I was mother Earth I would be calling out for all types of celestial help. It would be pretty cool to eventually find out that Stars all around can interact with their local planets, and moons Now Black holes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



[edit on 6/7/10 by Ophiuchus 13]

reply to post by davidmann

The simplest systems tend to be the most complicated in terms of the balance required for them to work.

As long as the balance and equilibrium are maintained,they will run pretty much on auto-pilot,and just keep on doing what they do without too much effort on our part.

The simplest systems maintain their own balance.

We just harvest the products of the natural operation of the systems to get what we need to live our lives.

reply to post by chiponbothshoulders


It is not the endresult that gives problems, living without it is no problem, if organized, it is the transition that makes it hard and deadly for this society. Example, no more food production until all the people are on the land to help. No housing on the land where all the will people help. Not enough fuell to purify the water for all that people. No organisation. Sure we can live without all the luxurious processes of normal day life, but if they were put down in an instand.. well

Originally posted by Ophiuchus 13
reply to post by space cadet

 

Nice to see that Earth is recognizing the Stars/Sun as an EXISTING celestial object, wonder if it has anything to do with the most recent comets? that went into the Sun last week? It really doesnt seem that hard to believe that one celestial object such as the Sun would interact with another such as the Earth, especially in the condition Earth is in, THANKS BP if I was mother Earth I would be calling out for all types of celestial help. It would be pretty cool to eventually find out that Stars all around can interact with their local planets, and moons

Now Black holes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spoken like a believer in a world without a God. Chances are, the earlier thread about the three sunspot patterns, which matched earthly events/island shapes, was a precursor of the Sun acting up in a huge way, SOON. God’s head’s up to US.
See: www.abovetopsecret.com...
There is no question that GOD (by any other name, still "God") controlled the sunspots, and the timing of two earthquakes, and the Olympics.


[edit on 7-6-2010 by etcorngods]