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Space Science

Yet Another Big Solar Flare 460

Posted by CmdrTaco from the put-on-your-foil-hat dept.
philthedrill writes "CNN is reporting that the sun has fired another large solar flare towards Earth. This one could arrive as early as Thursday (Oct. 30th) afternoon. (insert end-of-the-world statement here)."
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Yet Another Big Solar Flare More

Yet Another Big Solar Flare

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  • *Yawn* (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 30, 2003 @03:27PM (#7351322)
    Who Cares. I mean after awhile this becomes so boring. Jesus can't we pick on SCO today.

  • Insert end-of-the-world statement here. (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!

  • It's those damn aliens (Score:5, Funny)

    by Phoenix-kun ( 458418 ) * on Thursday October 30, 2003 @03:28PM (#7351334) Homepage
    pumping our sun to supernova so they can power their lightsails to the next star system.

  • one quote... (Score:5, Funny)

    by kisrael ( 134664 ) * on Thursday October 30, 2003 @03:28PM (#7351336) Homepage
    "I have not seen anything like it in my entire career as a solar physicist. The probability of this happening is so low that it is a statistical anomaly."

    You know, 'statistical anomaly' is NOT what I want to hear from solar physicists about my particular sun.

    • Re:one quote... (Score:2, Funny)

      by ebacon ( 16101 )
      You know, 'statistical anomaly' is NOT what I want to hear from solar physicists about my particular sun.

      Perhaps it's the inter-planetary equivalent of banging on your neighbors wall when they're making too much noise?

    • "I have not seen anything like it in my entire career as a solar physicist. The probability of this happening is so low that it is a statistical anomaly."

      Would he say that the probability is astronomically low?

    • Re:one quote... (Score:2, Troll)

      by trb ( 8509 )
      What he said:

      "I have not seen anything like it in my entire career as a solar physicist. The probability of this happening is so low that it is a statistical anomaly."

      What he meant:

      "I don't understand the interactions between solar flares, so I assume that if two big ones happen in the same week, it must be an uncorrelated anomalous miracle of science."

    • one simpsons quote (Score:4, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 30, 2003 @04:18PM (#7351785)
      lets burn down the observatory so that this never happens again!
  • Why do I suddenly feel like making backups of all my important data... and why do I think it will be of absolutely no use at all?!
  • I still recovering from all the radiation form the last one! Oh the horror!

  • Already here (Score:2, Informative)

    by CrazyTrashCanHead ( 621556 )
    See www.spaceweather.com for more info. SEC's Space Weather Now, however, seems to be down (www.sec.noaa.gov/SWN).

  • Any effects on humans at all? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by freeze128 ( 544774 ) on Thursday October 30, 2003 @03:29PM (#7351353)
    Do these flares affect humans (or even wildlife) at all? You know, even if it is the same way that pets can sense when an earthquake is about to happen....

  • Tinfoil hats (Score:5, Funny)

    by Eric(b0mb)Dennis ( 629047 ) * on Thursday October 30, 2003 @03:29PM (#7351354)
    Well, will tinfoil hats protect us from onslaught of solar flares? i have a whole stockpile.. $5.99 a piece, message me for details!

  • Anyone experience ANY damage? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dada21 ( 163177 ) <adam.dada@gmail.com> on Thursday October 30, 2003 @03:30PM (#7351362) Homepage Journal
    Probably by sheer luck and bad timing, I had 3 monitors all fail on the same day while I was at a customers. Couldn't explain the failure (it was definitely an anomoly) but maybe it had something to do with bad power that may have been caused by fluctuations in the power grid?

  • right about now (Score:5, Funny)

    by zephc ( 225327 ) on Thursday October 30, 2003 @03:30PM (#7351371)
    a kid in rural Kansas is accidentally throwing a tractor a half mile from his farm.

  • Pity (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nepheles ( 642829 ) on Thursday October 30, 2003 @03:30PM (#7351374) Homepage
    It's a pity that more people don't get to view these phenomena, because of modern light pollution. How many people are losing awe-inspiring sights, such as this and the milky-way?

  • Yet another loud Sun Fart. (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Stupid sun.
  • I'd really like to know how far these northern lights have been spotted.
    I'm in Toronto and I'm hoping that the northern lights show will keep up until dusk here.


    So, who has seen them so far, and how far south are you?

    • According to the article, people as far south as Georgia and Texas have seen 'em. I live in Alabama, and because of all the damned light pollution, I can't see shit.
  • I'll take all the cellphone interruptions I can get. Go sun go!

    -your sig here
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • You guys are aware that solar flare and sunspot activity are connected to a cycle and that this kind of thing will happen for quite awhile longer before the activity dies off, right? There is really no point of putting up a story about every time we have a big flare, because this could go on for awhile and is really quite normal behavior.

  • Halloween is going to be killer (Score:5, Funny)

    by orn ( 34773 ) on Thursday October 30, 2003 @03:32PM (#7351414)
    Pun intended.

    This could shape up to be a really amazing Halloween. For some reason, that 80's movie about Halley's comet's tail intersecting the earth and making zombies out of everyone that wasn't in a lead-lined room comes to mind. I, for one, will welcome our new zombie overlord masters. :-)

  • We don't know squat. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RobertB-DC ( 622190 ) * on Thursday October 30, 2003 @03:32PM (#7351417) Homepage Journal
    From the article:
    Space weather forecasters say this spate of strong solar flares is not consistent with normal solar behavior. The sun, which follows an 11-year activity cycle, has been quieting down since the last peak in 2000.

    Although we humans have been looking at the sun since before we climbed out of the trees (and our moms have been telling us not to even longer), it's almost silly to say that any observation of our local star is "not consistent with normal solar behavior." Just how many of those 11-year cycles have been recorded?

    If the ancient Chinese were using pinhole solar viewers [stanford.edu] to count sunspots for the past 5000 years, that would be one thing. But as has been posted in every Slashdot story on the subject, we have maybe 200 years of scientific data (of varying quality) out of the sun's five billion year history. Even W's pollsters would tell you that sample size is too small.
  • There is a perceptible slowing of the Internet as the flare hits our magnetosphere -- at first I thought this might be satellite-related, however the slowdown appears to occur within the country as well as to overseas links. Perhaps this is related to the effect on the power grid?

  • Big eal (Score:2, Funny)

    by John Jorsett ( 171560 )
    So far I haven't see*#*%-*@#FFgo)$}+!3UjadfWUER
  • OH NO! The Crystal Planet is on it's way!

    Quick, someone discover Endurium fast so we can build a superphotonic starship and get the fuck off of this planet!
    • > ... so we can build a superphotonic starship ...

      ALRIGHT. I want to know who was the jerk who invented such stupid terminology as "Photonic" anything. Thanks to him, we now have Star Trek Voyager goons spouting out bulls**t about "photonic life forms", "photonic energy" and "photonic matrix". Oh, and the proper term for a space ship that travels faster than light is, "SUPERLUMINAL". Remember that, will you?
    • Won't help. It will just find us somewhere else, and I already used the black egg to take out that asteroid. :(
  • I wonder how it'll affect the BPL test sites. Most BPL (broadband over powerline) would be affected somehow since they operate on HF frequencies. Additionally most shortwave radio was adversely affected.

    I saw some of last night's aurora from my location in SE Arkansas. Anyone else see the aurora?

  • aurora? (Score:2)

    by mliu ( 85608 )
    I remember some time ago there was a story on Slashdot about how the solar cycle was at its peak, and people even at low latitudes could see the Aurora Borealis. Unfortunately I missed out on it that time, but I'd love to see the Aurora still. Does anyone know if these solar flares will again allow people as far south as San Francisco or even Los Angeles to see the Aurora?

    • Re:aurora? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by javaxman ( 705658 )
      There is a picture of aurora which someone took in Sacramento last night.

      Aurora pictures from last night [nasa.gov]

      The above page has pictures taken in places like Georgia, Iowa, Oklahoma, Texas... some *great* views in Colorado, too. Alaska? The entire sky was green and red last night.

      It was too windy here ( SF bay area ) for me to have ventured out last night. Ok, I admit, I forgot to look. My view to the north sucks anyway.

    • Here [noaa.gov]. When your area is covered in red go out and look.

  • My server is safe (Score:5, Funny)

    by phorm ( 591458 ) on Thursday October 30, 2003 @03:35PM (#7351461) Journal
    I've coated the whole motherboard with SPF-50 sunblock. Ain't none of that darn sun radiation gonna get my computer.

    If anyone needs me I'll be out back holding my hotdog-on-a-stick up real high...

    p.s. Anyone else smell coconut burning?

  • Smallville reference (Score:4, Funny)

    by AKAImBatman ( 238306 ) <`akaimbatman' `at' `gmail.com'> on Thursday October 30, 2003 @03:36PM (#7351465) Homepage Journal
    > (insert end-of-the-world statement here)

    Or at least the end of my superpowers! Somebody saaaavveee mmmeeeee...

  • This one could arrive as early as Thursday (Oct. 30th) afternoon. (insert end-of-the-world statement here).

    Well, that's moot for another year, thanks to the Yankees and Marlins....
  • Hmmmm... the BOFH excuse generator [iinet.net.au] turns up a real excuse for once....
  • been declared a weapon of mass destruction, capable of destroying North Americans without regard to political or religious affiliation? I thought the Bush administration was taking these threats out one by one. Or is this in next year's budget.

    (it's funny. laugh)

  • Self-evident reporting (Score:5, Funny)

    by Zathrus ( 232140 ) on Thursday October 30, 2003 @03:38PM (#7351506) Homepage
    Best headline I saw on these was on MSNBC Wednesday. My wife told me about it, but I went and confirmed myself:

    Space Storm hits; Earth Survives

    Which, of course, is amazing news and you certainly wouldn't have known if the alternative had occurred.

    I'd provide a link, but like most of the online news outlets they readily change story headlines and content throughout the day. It's completely different now and talks about the current state and the upcoming flare output tomorrow (Friday).

  • Ah, solar flares (Score:5, Funny)

    by Digital Dharma ( 673185 ) <max@nosPam.zenplatypus.com> on Thursday October 30, 2003 @03:38PM (#7351516)
    The Ultimate Slashdotting.
  • This is obviously caused by SUVs.

  • Statistical anomaly? More like a bad model (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fname ( 199759 ) on Thursday October 30, 2003 @03:42PM (#7351563) Journal
    When I read this line, "I have not seen anything like it in my entire career as a solar physicist. The probability of this happening is so low that it is a statistical anomaly.", I cringed. Either a) This guy thinks his model is great & really believes that this is a 1/1,000,000,000 event, or b) he knows that this indicates a whole in his model, but the reporter ripped the quote out of context to make the story more sensational.

    A little statistics primer is in order. In order to quote odds on anything, a statistician needs a model, generally based on existing data. When there is an event that's off the charts, it will usually indicate to the scientist (or engineer) that there is a deficiency in their model (or their process is out of control, for manufacturing types). If I were a solas scientist, this event would indicate to me that the model is not adequate for predicting this sort of thing. Which makes sense, since we probably only have 40 years worth of data; you expect to be thrown a curve-ball every now and then.

    So I doubt it really is a statistical anomanly; maybe these solar-flare pairs occur every 50 years or so & that's why we haven't seen it before. But either the reporter needs to better explain the meaning of the quote, or the quotee needs to take a basic course on the limits of statistical probability.
    • The sun has been around a long time; so any models we do have are based upon a very small set of information that is a subset of a huge amount of information we do not have.

      For that reason alone, I doubt that this is as rare an event as some may make it out to be.
  • Sure am glad CNN alerted us at 12:35 PM Eastern that the flare could impact us as early as this afternoon.

    Luckily our terrestrial weather forcasting (which has a far greater impact on our lives) is a little better. I've had more warning before tornados!

  • I'm Steve Stevenson for the daily channel 192 news. Tonight, in a related story we brought to you yesturday, the sun has once again tried to destroy the earth. The sun claims that "we were in the way" and stated "when ya gotta go, ya gotta go..."

    President George W. Bush commented on the topic claiming that the sun may be in league with known terrorist group Al-Queda. President Bush attempted to stare down the sun in a show of bravery when his eyes were severely burned due to over exposure to UV rays withou
  • "Watch out, Radioactive Man! The Sun is exploding again!"
  • ...let's skip the daily reposting on this till we see one that looks like it's going to mean we really do need those tinfoil hats.

    Until then, set your browser homepage to SpaceWeather.Com [spaceweather.com] to keep updated.

  • Vancouver cleared up!!! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ashitaka ( 27544 ) on Thursday October 30, 2003 @04:04PM (#7351685) Homepage
    It was cloudy and raining when I posted the last time [slashdot.org].

    However it cleared up by evening. I was working late keeping an eye on the Real-Time Aurora Map [noaa.gov] which was looking pretty quiet when all of a sudden almost the entire northern hemisphere is coverd in a big red circle.

    Went outside and sure enough, the Northern sky is aglow in blue and red.

    Very cool.

  • All this great surf... (Score:3, Funny)

    by HarveyBirdman ( 627248 ) on Thursday October 30, 2003 @04:08PM (#7351691) Journal
    The surf is unseasonably heavy, and here I am stuck in a civilization that hasn't invented flare riding ships yet. :-(

    I only hope the spirit of Douglas Adams is out there enjoying the show.

  • Great CNN Headline (Score:5, Funny)

    by Buskaatt ( 124333 ) on Thursday October 30, 2003 @04:10PM (#7351712)
    Sun delivers yet another shot at Earth

    In other news, President George W. Bush as extended the Axis of Evil to include the Sun. "This supposed ally has been flexing its nucular [sic] muscles without U.N. oversight for generations. While small infractions can be overlooked, a direct strike at the U.S. will not be ignored."
    • "Sun delivers yet another shot at Earth"

      How else is Sun [sun.com] going to resuscitate its market share? If all sorts of pretty flashing lights don't help, then they're doomed.

      Sun's just using Microsoft tactics: use our stuff or else.

      Now, where's the Justice Department? They should be going after Sun for abuse of monopoly powers; it far outshines any other thermonuclear energy provider that Earth uses.
    • This sounds like almost literally out of Austin Powers...

      The President: C'mon, let me nuke that bastard.
      Commander Gilmour: You want to blow up the sun?
      The President: Would you really miss it that much?
    • "But do not worry," he added, "the well-being of our troops sent to perform this mission is our primary concern. They will land on the Sun at night, so as to avoid getting burned."
  • Then you haven't seen this [evtek.fi]!

  • California Fires and Sunspots (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mo ( 2873 ) on Thursday October 30, 2003 @04:13PM (#7351738)
    One interesting effect from the fires in California (specifically San Diego) is that the smoke has made it very easy to view the sun. Since the smoke has been so dense, the sun has appeared as this rich red-orange disc in the sky, with little dark dots on it where the solar flares are. I wish I had taken a picture, but I'm sure somebody can dig one up on google.

  • uh (Score:2)

    by CGP314 ( 672613 )
    (insert end-of-the-world statement here)

    No thank you.
  • (Bloviate Mode On... loading Limbaugh module):

    Folks! We've got another big one for you. It seems that while those tree hugging environmentalist wackos have been touting solar energy as being "clean, safe and renewable", the sun has been taking pot shots at the Earth. How's that for "clean, safe and renewable"? Let's face it. These windbags want us to believe their lies about the sun being nice and friendly and we should all hold hands and sing songs. But now the truth is coming out. The sun is a da

  • Magnetic North shifts 5 This morning (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tonywestonuk ( 261622 ) on Thursday October 30, 2003 @04:17PM (#7351782)
    According to the BBC, magnetic north varied by 5 degrees in 25mins starting from 0830 GMT, as the storm swept passed us.

  • Has anyone noticed any effects of the Aurora other than the nice light show?

    Last night a computer turned on here all by itself sometime during the night. It's never happened before, but it could just be a concidence.

  • major dilemma! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tumbleweed ( 3706 ) on Thursday October 30, 2003 @04:26PM (#7351888)
    Does this mean I should repent for my sins, or do a lot of sinning while there's still time?

    Things that make you go "Hmmm..."

  • Physics of Power Grid Surges (Score:3, Informative)

    by rjthomas61 ( 310385 ) on Thursday October 30, 2003 @04:45PM (#7352107)
    CNN: "Power grids in the northern United States and Canada felt the effects of the first storm. Utilities endured power surges and closely monitored their systems to prevent surges, according to NOAA."

    Check out this article [engineeringmatters.com] for more details on how solar flares cause these surges.

    Excerpt:
    "If (when) this flow of charged particles and embedded magnetic field collides with the Earth, it dramatically disrupts Earth's geomagnetic field and ionosphere, changing the terrestrial magnetic fields ... This magnetic field change, which occurs fairly rapidly, then induces currents in nearby conductors. ... In those areas that do not have high conductivity, such as those areas that contain igneous rock, the induced current flows through any available current path-typically, the long utility system lines for power, gas, oil, water, and telecommunications."

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