New Forecast: Severe Space Storm Headed to Earth
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 13 December 2006
03:45 pm ET
Space weather forecasters revised their predictions for storminess after a major flare erupted on the Sun overnight threatening damage to communication systems and power grids while offering up the wonder of Northern Lights.
“We’re looking for very strong, severe geomagnetic storming” to begin probably around mid-day Thursday, Joe Kunches, Lead Forecaster at the NOAA Space Environment Center, told SPACE.com this afternoon.
The storm is expected to generate aurora or Northern Lights, as far south as the northern United States Thursday night. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are not expected to be put at additional risk, Kunches said.
Radio communications, satellites and power grids could face potential interruptions or damage, however.
Solar flares send radiation to Earth within minutes. Some are also accompanied by coronal mass ejections (CME), clouds of charged particles that arrive in a day or two. This flare unleashed a strong CME that’s aimed squarely at Earth.
“It’s got all the right stuff,” Kunches said.
However, one crucial component to the storm is unknown: its magnetic orientation. If it lines up a certain way with Earth’s magnetic field, then the storm essentially pours into our upper atmosphere. If the alignment is otherwise, the storm can pass by the planet with fewer consequences.
The full article can be read here. Thanks Jack Le Moine for this news clip!
Will we be nuked then?
the sky is falling, the sky is falling..
Raise deflector shields!
This storm isn’t strong enough to send us back in time or hurl us into a parallel universe where Spock has a beard, is it?
This will seriously interrupt transmissions to Topalov from Fritz10…
This is what comes of star gazing. “You looking at me?” Crash.
Graeme, no, you have got the wrong storm I am afraid.
Take a left down the road,
walk two thousand miles,
wait for 72 thousand years at the nearest bus stop,
and take the 63Z22K90-3zzz1 bus.
That should take you to the storm you want within 22 seconds. However you may have to lose your legs as cost of fare.
Susan, if you are reading this:
Sometimes you insert among the chess articles a space article, thus you must be interested in that subject.
If you want to read a “radical view” (mine), initiate a blog entry about space research. Right now would be appropriate, since one of the space shuttle happens to be up at the ISS.
Gabor