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Solar Flare alert

T

TomZ

From: http://spaceweather.com/ <this link is updating>


GROWING THREAT OF FLARES: What a difference a weekend makes. Since Friday, sunspot AR1363 has nearly tripled in area and it has developed a delta-class magnetic field that harbors energy for X-class solar flares. This 48-hour movie from NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory shows the changes on Dec. 3-4:
 
OKCRadioGuy said:
One really big one could create quite a bit of trouble to sats and even stuff on earth....
Click to expand...

If it helps us re-think our uses and applications of technology, I'm OK with the disruptions.
We'll all suffer but may learn to better respect electronics and the electrical nature of our universe.

Maybe we'll even learn that vacuum tubes are good to keep in use.

Woe unto MOS and CMOS technologies in poorly protected applications!

Now where is that SPF 12 Coppertone?
 
Today's update:
SUBSIDING SUNSPOT: After three days of meteoric growth, sunspot AR1363 has reversed course and is beginning to decay. As its magnetic field relaxes, the active region poses a subsiding threat for strong flares. It's not dead yet, though,................

There is still a slim chance that AR1363 will buck the trend and unleash a major M- or X-class eruption. If such an flare happens today, it will be geoeffective because the sunspot is facing Earth. Quiet, however, is more likely
Click to expand...
http://spaceweather.com/
 
Sadly our electric grid and many other things we rely on to survive is controlled by modern electronics that is vernable to these events. Also, power transformers and lines can go boom when there is a big enough flare. We really need to be thinking about how to protect vital services for when one of the big ones does make it this way. A little prevention of critical services would go a long ways to preventing a huge problem when it happens. Tube radios are great but when the stations that transmit to them are toast and the electricity to them and your tube radio are off, it's just something pretty to look at.
 
As was mentioned on another thread herein; several transmitters are being installed (within Faraday cages) at selected locations along with a fuel depot in order to broadcast to AM receivers should the grid suffer a long term disruption.

I'm wanting to find a lister engine and a ST head just in case I need to watch TV. ::)
 
Good point Tom. I have to give FEMA credit where it's due. They certainly have taken good steps in installing hardened AM stations lately. I will also have to give them credit for at least trying to test the whole EAS system. It turned out to show a ton of flaws, mainly on their end, but at least they have enough guts to try it after all these years. I just wished they'd get more real broadcasters involved in the EAS system aspect of things on the origination end to help them design a system that works right.
 
Do solar flares usually trigger E-skip? We're approaching the winter peak of e-skip season. I remember hearing e-skip on Christmas.
 
Someon's got to ride their bike out to the transmitter to plug the hardened equipment in.
That is if the ATU & transmission line survives.
 
In the Movie "The Day After" there was a brilliant flash seen outside the car's window and the car suddenly stopped... what followed was a rather sudden shift to horse travel.
 
Let's pray that FEMA had enough sense to leave everything unhooked and provide a ATU to hook to the tower in an emergency (one tower Omni).
 
How much energy is in an electromagnetic pulse? I mean, if I had a car antenna that was pulsed; what would the resultant energy equal?
 
TomZ said:
How much energy is in an electromagnetic pulse? I mean, if I had a car antenna that was pulsed; what would the resultant energy equal?
Click to expand...

One jigga hertz. Or was that jigga watts. All I remember for sure is it had to do with the flux cazappitor.
 
TomZ said:
How much energy is in an electromagnetic pulse? I mean, if I had a car antenna that was pulsed; what would the resultant energy equal?
Click to expand...
This is a really complicated question. I'm mostly going to throw numbers out there and ignore the physics.

Let's talk nuclear because nuclear EMPs have been tested over the Pacific and studied. It is theorized that a nuclear explosion a couple hundred km over Kansas could destroy most of the solid state electronics in the continental USA. A fairly small nuclear explosion will release energy the order of PJ (1x10^15 Joules).

How much of that total energy gets converted into radio energy depends on several factors including the type of weapon and the conditions in the Earth's magnetic field near the point of the explosion. A 1994 Army report suggested that such a nuclear explosion over Kansas could generate RF field strengths of 5-25 kV per meter in almost every state.

Broadcasters state their field strengths in millivolts per meter.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
TomZ said:
How much energy is in an electromagnetic pulse? I mean, if I had a car antenna that was pulsed; what would the resultant energy equal?
Click to expand...
This is a really complicated question. I'm mostly going to throw numbers out there and ignore the physics.

<snip>

A 1994 Army report suggested that such a nuclear explosion over Kansas could generate RF field strengths of 5-25 kV per meter in almost every state.

Broadcasters state their field strengths in millivolts per meter.
Click to expand...
And in the (narrowband) Land Mobile Radio side of the electromagnetic spectrum we measured signal levels in microVolts.

I hope to never experience the loss of the electric grid; but I fear the day is forthcoming. Either by Solar forces or by nuclear emp.
 
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