Big Solar Storm Will Hit Earth Friday

CBC News ^

[webber]

Big solar storm will hit Earth Friday Oct 24th

BOULDER, COLO. - A strong geomagnetic storm is expected to hit Earth on Friday. Scientists say it may knock out electrical grids and satellite communications.

A "sunspot cluster" said to be 10 times the size of Earth could damage satellites and power grids, as well as cable TV, pager and cellular telephone service.

Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colo., say it is one of the largest sunspot clusters in years.

Larry Combs, a forecaster at the federal Space Environment Center in Boulder, says the sunspot cluster released a chunk of the sun's outer atmosphere early Wednesday morning.

NASA's Goddard Space Center says the sunspot clusters produce a "coronal mass ejection" – an explosion of gas and charged particles from the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere.

In 1997, television networks in the U.S. were affected when satellites used to beam programming to local stations were knocked out of service.

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Written by CBC News Online

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[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Time to loot the supermarkets

Sorry, this only applies to Los Angeles and Newark.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Dude, that is one wimpy gerbil! Probably couldn't provide enough auxiliary power to run it's own eyeballs. LOL!

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

THE SUN IS PISSED!

The Republicans have gone too far with their judicial nominations!

[oyez]

Is there any reports of viruses? My main machine is hanging up and acting like it did when it had the blaster worm.

[Auntie Dem]

This is even more bizarre...the locals told us that if we whistled at the aurora it would descend closer to you. I whistled, and sure enough, they did appear to cascade lower! I was not on any mind altering substances--at 50 below zero 50 miles from the nearest town you can't afford to screw yourself up like that.

[CarolAnn]

"The sound is likely purely internal."

I don't know if your comments are about the auroras or the meteors. It's not unheard of for a meteor to even create a sonic boom as it burns up in our atmosphere. Some leave smoke trails that linger for several seconds.

As for the auroras, I've heard people say that when they are intense, you can hear them. Something like a quiet crackling sound. I'm pretty sure you can probably look both of these things up to confirm them.

[appalachian_dweller]

3pm EST huh? I'll be at the Freedom Rally in DC.

No better place to be than with other FReepers during a solar storm.

[First_Salute]

Bump.

[webber]

Time line: ALL WEEKEND LONG!

[Deep_6]

I just got an alert!

The strong magnetic pull tonight may interfere with the proper functioning
of time keeping devices on our Eastern Seacoast, holding the hands back
for perhaps an hour.

It's scary. Damned scary!

 

[Libloather]

Scientists say it may knock out electrical grids and satellite communications.

I gotta little touch of gas on Friday. I figure it was either that strong geomagnetic storm or the two foot-long hot dogs with extra chili I had for lunch. I guess I'll never really know...

[Orlando]

It's not over yet, here comes the sun. Two X-Class
this way comes.


http://www.spaceweather.com

[Libloather]

An X-class solar flare erupted near sunspot 486 at 0650 UT on Oct. 26th. Another X-class flare erupted near sunspot 484 less than twelve hours later at 1815 UT. At least one of these eruptions, and possibly both, has hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) toward Earth. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras on Oct. 28th, when these CMEs are likely to sweep past Earth and trigger geomagnetic storms.

Will this, in any way, affect what I eat for lunch tomorrow?