Cosmic Rays literally off the charts?

I don't think this is an error, as you can see the levels building at the same times in the days before. Should we be worried about this? What is causing this? What if the trend gets stronger?



The 2MIN news guy also mentioned this in today's 2minute news:

reply to post by PlanetXisHERE

I don't think this is an error, as you can see them buidling at the same times in the days before. Should we be worried about this? What is causing this? What if the trend gets stronger?

I think we should all go to this page, read it, and educate ourselves so that we understand what we're looking at:

neutronm.bartol.udel.edu...

reply to post by DJW001


You mean this?

This plot can be used as an early warning of a large solar energetic particle event.

Yes. It seems like the planet is being prepared for a massive download.
Of epic proportions. Never before seen or experienced. A complete upgrade.

reply to post by PlanetXisHERE

In short, it may be safe to say that what all those words actually narrow down to is keeping absolute altruism in your heart right now at all times and if it wavers from the Zero Point to consciously bring it back.


reply to post by DJW001

reply to post by rootbranch2012


Wow, you've been busy since joining. Care to share any insights or sources on these comments? You won't get any judgement from me...............some others derive comfort from that mode though.

Multi-tasking keeps it interesting.

What would you like to know - maybe I can help shed some light.


reply to post by PlanetXisHERE

reply to post by PlanetXisHERE

You mean this?

No, this:

Disclaimer

This is a prototype, experimental site. Use of material on this site for any purpose is at your own risk. We do not guarantee that the realtime displays will be available or up-to-date at all times. Realtime data have not been subjected to rigorous quality control; it may contain "glitches" that produce false alarms or fail to detect true space weather disturbances. Even when the data are good, there may be physical factors that produce false alarms or fail to detect true space weather disturbances.

neutronm.bartol.udel.edu...

In fact, the chart does show that there have been two CMEs during the past three days. This is not unusual during a solar maximum.

INCOMING CME, WEAK IMPACT EXPECTED: A coronal mass ejection (CME) produced by Saturday's M6-class flare is heading toward Earth. According to analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the cloud could deliver a glancing blow to our planet's magnetic field on July 31st around 1500 UT (+/- 7 hours). ...

This is a slow-moving CME. The cloud's low speed (382 km/s estimated) combined with its glancing trajectory suggests a weak impact is in the offing. Nevertheless, polar geomagnetic storms are possible when the cloud arrives.

spaceweather.com... [7/31/12]

Originally posted by PlanetXisHERE
I don't think this is an error, as you can see the levels building at the same times in the days before. Should we be worried about this? What is causing this? What if the trend gets stronger?

All I know about cosmic rays, I learned from Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.
I guess we'll all get cool powers like the Fantastic Four.

reply to post by DJW001


Your sending conflicting messages - so are these readings that appear to be off the chart due to the two CME's we had recently, or due to the experimental nature of the project?

reply to post by PlanetXisHERE

Your sending conflicting messages - so are these readings that appear to be off the chart due to the two CME's we had recently, or due to the experimental nature of the project?

A little of both, actually. I suspect the size of the red and blue blobs has something to do with the way they are formatting the data display; the size of the dots are probably logarithmic to bring out small differences... a large event gets exaggerated. That's just my first guess, however. Don't worry, I'm looking into it, and will get back to you later when I know for sure.

Originally posted by DJW001
reply to post by PlanetXisHERE

 

Your sending conflicting messages - so are these readings that appear to be off the chart due to the two CME's we had recently, or due to the experimental nature of the project?

A little of both, actually. I suspect the size of the red and blue blobs has something to do with the way they are formatting the data display; the size of the dots are probably logarithmic to bring out small differences... a large event gets exaggerated. That's just my first guess, however. Don't worry, I'm looking into it, and will get back to you later when I know for sure.

Thanks.....it's nice to have a normal conversation with you about this without getting into egos, emotions etc.

During the time I have been cross checking the data on the Bartol Research Institute's webpage, the graphs have been updated. They still show a large change in anisotropic particle density, but the size of the circles has been revised downward considerably. Most likely, this is to correct a software glitch in the data display, but you are free to assume that the "real data" is being suppressed. What the charts in question show is that there are less Galactic Cosmic Rays being detected, due to the bow shock of a CME "pushing them away." Unless you are a satellite operator, or use GPS technology to guide your slant drilling operation, you probably don't have much to worry about. Go out tonight and enjoy the aurora.

Originally posted by DJW001
During the time I have been cross checking the data on the Bartol Research Institute's webpage, the graphs have been updated. They still show a large change in anisotropic particle density, but the size of the circles has been revised downward considerably. Most likely, this is to correct a software glitch in the data display, but you are free to assume that the "real data" is being suppressed. What the charts in question show is that there are less Galactic Cosmic Rays being detected, due to the bow shock of a CME "pushing them away." Unless you are a satellite operator, or use GPS technology to guide your slant drilling operation, you probably don't have much to worry about. Go out tonight and enjoy the aurora.

Thanks for the investigation. Will you let us know on here if you see something related to the Sun's particle emissions and/or cosmic rays that we should be concerned about?

reply to post by PlanetXisHERE

Thanks for the investigation. Will you let us know on here if you see something related to the Sun's particle emissions and/or cosmic rays that we should be concerned about?

Sure. In the meantime, please write to your government representatives and urge them to take appropriate measures to harden the electrical infrastructure against large CMEs. They are a very real danger, and public utilities are loathe to spend money on replacement transformers just in case they are damaged by a once in a century event.

Originally posted by DJW001
reply to post by PlanetXisHERE

 

Thanks for the investigation. Will you let us know on here if you see something related to the Sun's particle emissions and/or cosmic rays that we should be concerned about?

Sure. In the meantime, please write to your government representatives and urge them to take appropriate measures to harden the electrical infrastructure against large CMEs. They are a very real danger, and public utilities are loathe to spend money on replacement transformers just in case they are damaged by a once in a century event.

That is cause for concern, but I'm more worried about the electrical infrastructure in nuke plants. I can survive grid collapse, worldwide fallout from over 400 nuclear reactors or even a few dozen I'm not so sure about.

Originally posted by PlanetXisHERE

Originally posted by DJW001
reply to post by PlanetXisHERE

 

Thanks for the investigation. Will you let us know on here if you see something related to the Sun's particle emissions and/or cosmic rays that we should be concerned about?

Sure. In the meantime, please write to your government representatives and urge them to take appropriate measures to harden the electrical infrastructure against large CMEs. They are a very real danger, and public utilities are loathe to spend money on replacement transformers just in case they are damaged by a once in a century event.

That is cause for concern, but I'm more worried about the electrical infrastructure in nuke plants. I can survive grid collapse, worldwide fallout from over 400 nuclear reactors or even a few dozen I'm not so sure about.

The good news about CME's and solar flares is, like hurricanes here on Earth, we get a lot more heads up than say with a tornado or especially like an earthquake (or worse, earthquake and tsunami).

Power companies today take solar weather very seriously now (as compared to in the past), and know that much of their equipment can survive a large scale CME that is a direct hit with us simply by shutting the equipment down so that the grid is off line. The current induced in transformers and substations by the CME alone is a lot less than if the grid is up, and especially if power demand at the time is high. In those cases, the CME can induce more than the equipment can handle simply because it was almost at capacity during normal operations.

Prior to these times, we didn't really come to understand that large sun activity could shut down or damage our grid. With the understanding now, and especially since a lot of that equipment (those massive sub station transformers) can not be replaced quickly or would have to be manufactured again taking possibly years, they take it a lot more seriously.

As for the nuclear power plants: the good news there is if electrical power fails, the rods can be manually (and quite quickly) be inserted to stop the reaction.
However, as you pointed out, there is the cooling to consider especially for the spent rods. Back up pumps are required, and again, since they are not normally running, they should be safe from a large CME hitting the Earth and should fire up just fine.

BUT: they run on like diesel fuel and would have to be kept running, but for how long? However, unlike what happened over in Japan, a CME would give us plenty of heads up and time to prepare for.

I've not go into researching this myself, but you might want to (maybe even do a thread on it). I do know that power companies are well known for going "cheap" and cutting corners.

Now THIS is a "Doomsday" idea I can support you on partially!

I've learned now that this rise on the chart is being associated by some with India's power blackouts. The electrical infrastructure there is fragile, more fragile than most countries.

reply to post by eriktheawful


Good points Erik. Was there a specific event which made the electrical companies sit up and take notice or was it a gradual process?

Also, I have read that though you are correct about manually inserting the rods, most nuke plants only have diesel for the back-up cooling power for thirty days, while the rods take about one year to cool to get to the point where they can be put into dry storage.

Wow, I'm seeing now that these massive power outages are not confined to India, Pakistan and the Cayman Islands have been hit as well (well I know Cayman Islands doesn't exactly qualify as a massive area).

www.presstv.ir...

rjrnewsonline.com...