NASA Warns of Magnetic Storm After Huge Solar Flare 84
coondoggie writes "NASA today said a strong-to-severe geomagnetic storm is in progress following a massive solar flare and coronal mass ejection (CME). CMEs are a solar phenomenon that can send solar particles into space and affect electronic systems in satellites and on Earth. Simulations indicate that solar wind plasma has penetrated close to geosynchronous orbit starting at 9am today. Geosynchronous satellites could therefore be directly exposed to solar wind plasma and magnetic fields. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras after nightfall, NASA stated."
A bit late to the party? (Score:5, Informative)
Spaceweather.com is reporting this as subsiding....
SUBSIDING STORM: A severe geomagnetic storm (Kp=7-8) that began yesterday when a CME hit Earth's magnetic field is subsiding. At the peak of the disturbance, auroras were sighted around both poles and in more than five US states including Michigan, New York, South Dakota, Maine, and Minnesota:
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While Slashdot is late to the party here Spaceweather does say that people near the poles should still keep an eye out.
So the story essentially becomes: "If you're in Alaska, Northern Europe or somewhere similar there is a greater than usual chance of auroras today."
In the southern hemisphere only Antarctica is south enough and the people there probably don't need outside help in spotting auroras. =)
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THE END IS NEAR!!! bring out your dead!!!
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Oh please. There is no way a geometric storm could eff
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see? poor guy died in the middle of his comment. why am i still alive?
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you lived long enough to hit the "submit" button for xmorg.
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I think that was only the list of locations that were reporting photos to Spaceweather.com....at the time of the post.
Considering /.'s lead time.... (Score:2, Informative)
Considering /.'s lead time this warning would have been helpful last week.
I jest, I jest, this sounds cool. I hope I can see some of the show in the North East.
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Good thing they discovered superluminal neutrinos last week because you'll need a time machine.
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Well, that is part of my question around superluminal neutrinos. If they really worked that way, then couldn't you potentially detect a supernova weeks or months before it becomes visible via light/radio? The speed difference is small, but when the travel time is measured in decades to centuries a tiny percentage adds up.
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Yup, that was basically what I was getting at...
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Except that they don't, in fact, observe neutrinos before supernovae. They arrive right when they "should", at or slightly after the light arrives. Bear in mind that \Delta t is 6x10^{-8} seconds over 500 miles. A light year is roughly 6 x 10^12 miles, so a supernova from hundreds to millions of LY away would produce neutrinos that arrive anywhere from hours to days or months before the light. And they don't, or at least no one has yet observed that they do. That is, it isn't really a tiny percentage, not tiny as in at all difficult to resolve. 60 nanoseconds is hundreds of CPU clock cycles -- your computer could resolve the timing to a couple of significant figures and I'm guessing state of the art clocks and transducers can do at least orders of magnitude better.
It's one of several reasons that people are skeptical about the superluminal result, one of several things that will ultimately have to be explained if the superluminal result is eventually validated.
The only supernova where neutrinos could be assigned to was 1987A, and the number counts (detailed on Wikipedia) were too low to state anything significant. However, there was a increase in neutrino counts 3 hours before the light arrived.
You also have to keep in mind that process producing the neutrinos in a SN could just be earlier. Yes, neutrino speed should be verified.
What is the point in reporting this? (Score:2, Insightful)
The storm had already passed by the time this article was posted.
This is something that should have been posted on Sunday.
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You should both assume that times given are local for the source. This being NASA and all...
Would that be Kennedy Space Center (ET), Johnson Space Center (CT), White Sands (MT), JPL (PT) or some other NASA office in another time zone?
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The article was fine, /. is somewhat more international.
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As a New Zealander I do find it annoying when people fail to identify the timezone.
On a US site? Or does it just bother you that your country doesn't have a site like this?
As a west coast USian, i do find it annoying when people fail to identify the timezone.
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Wow, someone sounds like a typical american, can't tell one side of the world from the other (New Zealand is about as far from Europe as you can get, i.e. opposite side of the planet).
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And mine wasn't? I guess we all lack a sense of humour.
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This is slashdot, you insensitive clod, we aren't supposed to just RTFS, we RTFA!
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True, but RTFS is supposed to help us decide if we want to RTFA, which kinda fails when we find ourselves feeling like we have to when we don't want to.
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US Eastern time is the only time zone that matters.
Made for good photography! (Score:5, Interesting)
I got this shot of an aurora over Karlstad, Sweden last night http://i.imgur.com/fnbS4.jpg
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First time I've seen Karlstad mentioned on Slashdot :) Was it taken on Kronoparken?
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UTC motherfucker! Do you speak it?! (Score:1)
I always love international websites posting things like "9 a.m.", because we only have 24+ timezones you know..
Say "a.m." again. Say "a.m." again. I dare you. I double-dare you, motherfucker. Say "a.m." one more goddamn time.
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A.M. !
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Make that "we have only 1852 timezones you know..."
daid@DavidUbuntu:~$ find /usr/share/zoneinfo/ | wc -l
1852
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That includes MANY duplicates, example: UTC-6 aka CST in North America is listed well over a dozen times not even counting cities listed (which would likely triple that or more).
The tz database lists 405 here:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones
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And yet, some moderator who has apparently never seen Pulp Fiction is too busy on his holy crusade for ambiguous units to figure out you were making a joke. Ah well, I giggled.
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Because something coming from an administration of the US government on a very US-centric website won't be in one of about 4 time zones. Something coming from CERN or EU in general is in about 5 time zones. If the event is important enough, it's fairly easy to find out which of those time zones it applies to.
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Try chewing on: "Sunrise is at about 7 A.M. in autumn"
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From the reactions of other posters, it seems that the submitter not only failed to specify which "9 a.m." he is talking about, he also didn't properly specify which "today" he is talking about.
NASA giving excuses to my ISP (Score:1)
What a crock! (Score:2)
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I remember that one (straight from wikipedia):
On March 13, 1989 a severe geomagnetic storm caused the collapse of the Hydro-Québec power grid in a matter of seconds as equipment protection relays tripped in a cascading sequence of events.[2][9] Six million people were left without power for nine hours, with significant economic loss. The storm even caused aurorae as far south as Texas.[3] The geomagnetic storm causing this event was itself the result of a coronal mass ejection, ejected from the Sun on
Just looked out the window ... (Score:2)
The SOHO That Cried Wolf (Score:2)
Knowledge and technology are all well and good, except when used for evil or to sell advertising, I guess...
A Solar Storm Strikes Earthâ"and Provides a Warning for the Future [time.com]
New Forecast: Sun's 'Superstorms' Could Doom Satellites [space.com]
Could The Sun Set Off The Next Big Natural Disaster? [smithsonianmag.com]
PS: The sun will go supernova in the near future. Please panic accordingly. :-)
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TIL the sun may already have gone supernova and that it will soon enter into a Red Giant phase. [wikipedia.org]
emphasis mine
Please disregard my ignorance and feel free to embrace the correct end of life as we know it. Panic accordingly.
EMP Magnetic Storm Ate My Homework (Score:2)
I'm safe ... (Score:2)
... I unplugged my Dishnet.
Our Sun has spoken. (Score:1)
I wonder what she said.
Good night! (Score:1)