Solar 'superflare' shredded Earth's ozone

New Scientist ^ | 23 March 2007 | Kelly Young

[Waco]

Fortunately,,widespread use of tobacco in the world wiped out 95% of civilized activity on earth 3 years before this could cause any harm,,,,burp,,,hic

[Colorado Doug]

Why, yes, as a matter of fact there is. I happen to sell those. Just send me your cash.

[hellbender]

I’m sure astronomers were observing and cataloguing sunspots long before this flare occurred. You can’t do that by staring directly at the sun (with or without a telescope) without going blind, so they must have used filters or projected the sun’s image onto some kind of screen.

[ustanker]

I cannot believe this till I check with Professer Gore...

[Nathan Zachary]

"Now, scientists have calculated the ozone depletion from the 1859 solar flare for the first time by studying chemical deposits in Greenland ice cores."

And if you actually believe any of this, then you deserve to be fleeced out of every dime you have.

These idiots aren't "scientists". They are religious fanatics (Gaia worshippers) It isn't "science" when you form a conclusion that starts out with a flawed theory to begin with. (ie the earth is 3.4 billion years old or whatever the claim is.)

Of course, the ice isn't near that old, as the earth was supposedly a glowing hot ball of fire, which cooled of, then it started to rain, which cooled it off some more, (even though that if this were true, we wouldn't find gold or any other heavy metals within the crust of the earth, and what makes up the crust would be the same mixure of lighter material everywhere.)

You'd also have to believe religiously that the earth formed from clouds of space dust, which formed from stars exploding, which formed from nothing exploding, (getting something from nothing is an amazing feat in itself) and despite the fact random explosions in space would not produce a universe such as we see today, and that the laws of gravity in space under the influence of a large body (our sun) prove that particles would not cling to each other and form a planet in a zillion years, never mind a mere 3 or 4 billion, and that moons in near perfect circular orbits would somehow form around them. What you CAN believe however, is that the earth atmosphere is constantly replentishing itself, just as it constantly looses some of it's components to space,it also gatherselements from space; that the earth's temperature is self-regulating, and will always return to a relatively stable temperature regardless of any sudden shifts caused by catastrophic events, because the earths temperature is a result of it's percise location- distance from the sun, rotation, orbit, etc. Normal weather fluctuations are caused by increasing and decreasing evaporation of water. Much like our sweat controls our body temperatures, so does the earth's production of atmospheric moisture control it's temperature. When it gets hotter because of fluctuations of the sun's output, or any other cause, this causes evaporation rates to increase, forming more cloud and rain, which then cools down the earth. When contitions make the earth cool, evaporation decreases, allowing more sunlight to reach the earths crust and warm it back up. Easy, simple, common sense 'science".

[justa-hairyape]

If and when we meet our first Space Aliens, the first think they may ask us is, ‘Why are you living so close to that Sun ? Don’t you know how dangerous that is’.

[twntaipan]

Ah, but if only the US had signed the Kyoto agreements, none f this would have happened.

[reagan_fanatic]

Great. So now we find out that the environment-hating George W. Bush has created a time machine and warped back to the mid 1800's.

Is there no end to his hatred of the ozone layer?

[Shots]

O know that is the whole point I was trying to make. The question remains though did they have something to use I kind of doubt it. I just think this is more science mumbo jumbo to scare the sheeple.

[Nathan Zachary]

Now the UN and David Suzuki foundation (one of the worst marxist nutrcases out there) is telling Canada that despite the evil USA and AU not signing the Koyoto scam, and that Canada produces only 1% of the worlds “evil” carbon, Canada can, all by itself, stop global warming over Canada if it acts now. Otherwize, they will “suffer” the evils of global warming in less than 50 years, evils which involve shorter winters, better crop yields, oh, and of course to show that they mean busines, they are going to have a lot of hurricanes this year in Newfieland.

[ElkGroveDan]

The event was seen on Earth by an observer who noticed a white spot on the Sun suddenly brighten for about five minutes.

Who wrote about it in his book "Memoirs of a Blind Man"

[SERUM10]

The title and the article don’t tell the half of it. This article describes the largest flare aimed at the earth in the last 500 years not the biggest observed from earth. For example, according to NASA solar observation satellite data, an X27 magnitude flare in November 2004? was detected erupting from a portion of the sun that had just rotated into view from the earth in the preceding ~24 hours. This eruption from a sun spot was estimated to be capable (this could use a citation as it’s from memory) of causing prompt radiation fatalities on the earth of unsheltered people and animals at around the 10 degree south latitude around their noontime longitudes. Since it wasn't "aimed" at the earth there was no damage here. It makes one curious about the happenings to come as the sunspot cycle peaks in the next ~5 years.

[decimon]

This flare released 6.5 times more energy than the largest solar flare of the satellite era, which occurred in 1989. That flare was strong enough to cause a power blackout in Quebec, Canada.

And there was no blackout in 1859. Proof that science is bunk.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

The Kyoto Treaty will stop unruly solar flares.

[RightWhale]

They used projected images. A simple pinhole will do.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

1989

[Nathan Zachary]

"This flare released 6.5 times more energy than the largest solar flare of the satellite era, which occurred in 1989. That flare was strong enough to cause a power blackout in Quebec, Canada."

That in itself is a pretty bold statement, with absolutely no evidence to back it up. Lightning strikes are the cause of practically all black outs when transformers fail from the power surge. Plus, at that time Quebecs hydro systems were undergoing conversions to high voltage DC power transmission lines (which are the norm now for all long distance lines from power dams in Quebec and Manitoba, much more efficient than ac transmission- so much for Mr. Tesla) And were problematic at the time. (I work in the field)

[decimon]

A yolk, my good egg.

[muawiyah]

Fredericksburg VA is about as far South as Seymour, Indiana where I recall seeing the Northern Lights more than half a century ago.

A review of the records concerning solar flares would probably find out exactly what day that happened too!

[Rb ver. 2.0]

Ah, the yolks on me.