Huge X class solar flare today biggest in 4 years

An extremely powerful solar flare, the largest in over four years, rocked the sun early Tuesday (Aug. 9), but is unlikely to wreak any serious havoc here on Earth, scientists say.

"It was a big flare," said Joe Kunches, a space scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Space Weather Prediction Center. "We lucked out because the site of the eruption at the sun was not facing the Earth, so we will probably feel no ill effects."

Today's solar flare began at 3:48 a.m. EDT (0748 GMT), and was rated a class X6.9 on the three-class scale scientists use to measure the strength of solar flares. The strongest type of solar eruption is class X, while class C represents the weakest and class M flares are medium-strength events. [Video: Aug. 9 Solar Flare Briefly Knocks Out HF Radio]

www.space.com...

www.space.com...

reply to post by hrmmm


From what I read this is nothing compared to what we are going to get in 2013. They are expecting huge ones at the end of the 11 year solar cycle.
Can`t remember where I read it but just did today.

Yes I heard a couple of hours ago that the majority of it missed the Earth.
The flare did create waves of ionization in our upper atmosphere and sparked a minor proton storm around the planet.

reply to post by hrmmm


nevermind...

reply to post by Iamherefornow


yes the prediction is that they will become more intense untill some time in 2013 at the end of this current cycle.

Todays flare was more than 3 times larger than the previous largest flare of this solar cycle - the X2.2 that occurred on Feb 15, 2011," scientists with NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, a space observatory that monitors the sun, wrote in an update.

Originally posted by fltcui
Yes I heard a couple of hours ago that the majority of it missed the Earth.
The flare did create waves of ionization in our upper atmosphere and sparked a minor proton storm around the planet.

you have a link on that? id love to read more info!

Thanks in advance!

reply to post by hrmmm


so whats this got to do with aliens and ufo's????

wrong forum

reply to post by here4awhile


um did you read the info on the link? it did cause problems.

some VLF and HF radio communications blackouts have been reported, according to Spaceweather.com, a website that monitors space weather events.

reply to post by SecretKnowledge


hrmmm You could be right or maybe all these UFO's are behind it? either that or can a mod please move the thread. ill go take a good rest now :/

Addition
i mean if et was to invade would he not knock out all our satalite communications 1st? and maybe cause a huge solar flare to do so? some have posted threads about ufo's arround the sun,if they are loitering there what are they upto?

reply to post by hrmmm


They are saying the ones in 2013 will be very strong. I know we had some back in the 1800`s that they said if it would happen today would have taken out some of the electrical grid across the US. Does anybody know if these in 2013 will be that strong?

reply to post by hrmmm


You can go here, it's the Solar Dynamics Observatory
sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov...

reply to post by hrmmm


Copy and paste post
Maybe you'd like to give us your take on the story you posted .

Post by SecretKnowledge
so whats this got to do with aliens and ufo's???? wrong forum

Its already been posted in the correct forum .
www.abovetopsecret.com...

NASA release this today.

reply to post by gortex


The majority of posts here are pastes and links with just some added filler, the point of which is to start discussion.


My "Take" on it is that it was sudden and unexpected. NASA says the satalites they have placed there are to warn us of flares.so why no warning when it actually occured? (im sure those that lost communications would like an answer to that too)

it did not hit us,if it did none of us here would be posting now,we would all be sitting in the dark with candles. We just excaped the bullet by the skin of our teeth.

"Because of its position the CME is going to shoot out into space and not be Earth-directed, and we don’t expect any big geomagnetic storm with this," Kunches told SPACE.com. "We did luck out. If this would have happened a week ago, who knows?"

reply to post by Iamherefornow


Do you mean by they that NASA scientists are getting in a tizzy saying that SC24 is going to have a strong maximum when actually they know darn well that it is going to be a damp squib and probably the lowest max in many many years leading us onwards to a Landscheidt Minimum?

Rather than listen to scientists who have been completely discredited with their numerous downward revisions of the max, try doing some research.

Here are some to get you started:

Weakest sun spot cycle in 200 years
Beyond Landsheidt
Landscheidt cycles research

And by the way actually some of the strongest flares come in the periods of lowest sunspot activity, so yes there is a possibility of flares even though the sun spot activity is low and we slide towards a very cold period for 30 years or so.

The recording of sunspots, solar flares, and their cycles began in 1755

We are on the 24th cycle since then.

During the 10th cycle, there was a massive flare, called the Carrington Event...

On September 1–2, 1859, the largest recorded geomagnetic storm occurred. Aurorae were seen around the world, most notably over the Caribbean; also noteworthy were those over the Rocky Mountains that were so bright that their glow awoke gold miners, who began preparing breakfast because they thought it was morning.

Telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed in some cases even shocking telegraph operators. Telegraph pylons threw sparks and telegraph paper spontaneously caught fire. Some telegraph systems appeared to continue to send and receive messages despite having been disconnected from their power supplies.

Source

I suspect there will be significant repercussions from solar flares to our electronic civilization, forcing people to fall back to some rather primitive methods of survival.

Edit: S&F to the OP for a timely, and possibly VERY important topic!

reply to post by PuterMan


Awesome Links!

Thanks!
Bookmarked.Lots of nice intresting stuff there!

So, does it sound like I need to put a few things in my make shift faraday cage (solar blanket, wrapped around a common blanket, wrapped around all my nifty little gadgets that need protection)?

reply to post by QuietSpeech


You've got the right idea using a Farraday cage, but do not use mylar (space/solar blanket) It's great for reflecting light, but it's a terrible conductor of electricity and magnetic fields. Use really heavy aluminum foil, or better yet, a nice heavy steel box. A big ol' 1968 Ford's trunk would make a great Farraday cage because it's pretty well sealed and is un-grounded because of the rubber tires.

Just a few days ago a 3rd flare within 3 days occured. Will we see 1 tomorrow? and if so why the sudden upswing in activity?