Althouse: The coronal mass ejection is coming.

June 12, 2014

The coronal mass ejection is coming.

"Solar Flares Disrupt Communications on Earth, Could Send Shockwave on Friday the 13th."

23 comments:

The Drill SGT said...: This one isn't a killer of civilization, but a super sized Carrington Event would lead to mass starvation and collapse of the world economy and arguably life as we know it.; 6/12/14, 10:15 AM
Unknown said...: sounds like group sex; 6/12/14, 10:20 AM
T J Sawyer said...: Y2K; 6/12/14, 10:31 AM
Bill Crawford said...: Byline: Chicken Little; 6/12/14, 10:36 AM
Rusty said...: Sarge.
The proggs will blame global warming.
Science!; 6/12/14, 10:40 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Even the sun is trying to rain on Hillary's parade.; 6/12/14, 10:50 AM
Jaq said...: Maybe a Carrington event would cure my internet addiction.; 6/12/14, 11:00 AM
MadisonMan said...: Then again, it might not.

I'm reminded of the 'News' story from last week forecasting Historic Hail in Great Britain this past weekend. Didn't happen at all.

(Although, to be fair, France had some nice stones early this week).; 6/12/14, 11:16 AM
rhhardin said...: I used to notice X-class flares when listening to Imus on very distant AM radio stations. He'd disappear quickly as the D-layer absorption shot up.

Cool. Physics in action.

You could quickly consult the solar xray graphs pic and see stuff working.

CMEs follow by a couple days if they're aimed right. It usually means clouds so you can't look for aurora.; 6/12/14, 11:32 AM
rhhardin said...: The science in the article is pretty bad. Don't let women write science.

Unless they're writing for women, who will understand it's about feeling, mostly.; 6/12/14, 11:38 AM
MadisonMan said...: The real problem with CMEs is that anyone transporting away from the planet will end up someplace where Spock has a beard.; 6/12/14, 11:49 AM
rhhardin said...: I'd have written what's interesting about it.

Charged particles racing from the sun can't cross magnetic field lines, so when they hit the earth, they carry along and compress the earth's magnetic field.

The moving earth's magentic field lines induce huge currents in any wires forming huge electrical loops, for instance power lines, and burn out what's attached to them, for instance transformers.

Then you get a few years while new transformers are built to replace them.; 6/12/14, 11:50 AM
MathMom said...: I posted this earlier at Instapundit.

I lived in the Arctic (up there, we say "artic") during the Solar Maximum of Solar Cycle 22. Look at this graph to see the difference between then and now. I'm not terribly concerned.

We worried then about "long conductors", (one being the oil pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez) and the power grid. AK readings then (this is a number that tells the strength of the impact of the solar wind) was on a scale from 1-100. Readings were over 230 on strong days, and aurora was seen in San Antonio in March 1989. It was not even the strongest Solar Max - only the strongest in 60 years at that time.

I'm still alive to tell the tale.

Watching Diane Sawyer trying to convince me that this is a problem is really quite funny. The eruption was huge, yes, but not Earth-directed, and it's about time the sun did something during this maximum.

The thing that should actually be of concern, is that the graph of the recent solar cycles matches that preceding the Little Ice Age. Tell me...is it harder to grow crops during "global warming" or when glaciers begin to advance and cover up your farmland? This video is of an ice shove - it will melt. But look at what ice can do - an advancing glacier will not stop. It will cover farmland, take out highways, rearrange the landscape as it wishes. Better hope that this wimpy Solar Maximum does not precede serious cooling.

As we say in Houston, "You don't have to shovel humidity."; 6/12/14, 12:02 PM
Original Mike said...: I thought these would stop when we elected Obama.; 6/12/14, 12:16 PM
Drago said...: The Drill SGT: "=This one isn't a killer of civilization, but a super sized Carrington Event would lead to mass starvation and collapse of the world economy and arguably life as we know it."

Nope.

Not possible.

The only real danger is AGW.

Algore and the lefties have so lectured anyway.; 6/12/14, 12:36 PM
gerry said...: France had some nice stones early this week

Damn French.

They always have nice stones.; 6/12/14, 1:09 PM
3john2 said...: Women and minorities most impacted.; 6/12/14, 1:11 PM
Heyooyeh said...: Thanks, Obama!; 6/12/14, 3:00 PM
David said...: Just one little typo away from a classic headline.; 6/12/14, 3:52 PM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: Nothing that more regulations and higher taxes can't fix.; 6/12/14, 3:53 PM
Drago said...: Coronal mass ejections are racist.; 6/12/14, 4:25 PM
traditionalguy said...: Could this be a test to measure the heart of the sun. A Strong sun is a strong ejection. A Weak sun is a weak ejection.

I'll ask my cardiologist.; 6/12/14, 8:17 PM
Ken Mitchell said...: www.spaceweather.com

The flares (three of them) were scarcely into the X range; even had they been pointed directly at the Earth, they wouldn't have done much more than make the radio staticky and maybe some Wisconsin auroras.

But in July 2012, the most powerful flare ever observed - probably Carrington Event classed - was thankfully NOT pointed at the Earth.

It WILL happen again. Probably not today, but it WILL happen.; 6/12/14, 8:43 PM