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Boffins tell of solar storm near-miss; 'We'd still be picking up thepieces now'



 
 
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  #1  
Old July 28th 14, 01:19 AM posted to sci.space.policy
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Default Boffins tell of solar storm near-miss; 'We'd still be picking up thepieces now'

"On 23 July 2012, two coronal mass ejections (CME) burst out of
the Sun's surface within 15 minutes of each other and headed out
into space at more than 3,000km per second. If they had erupted
nine days earlier Earth would have been directly in its path.
Instead, NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO)
satellite was perfectly positioned to record the blast.

For a paper [PDF] in the journal Space Weather, scientists
analyzed the data from STEREO and found that the CMEs were the
largest yet measured - and could even have exceeded the
notorious 1859 Carrington event. Had they hit us, the resulting
electromagnetic disturbance could have taken out most of the
GPS network, communications satellites, electrical grids and
some servers."

See:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07...st_one_ week/

&

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news...ul_superstorm/
  #2  
Old July 28th 14, 02:12 PM posted to sci.space.policy
Brad Guth[_3_]
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Default Boffins tell of solar storm near-miss; 'We'd still be picking upthe pieces now'

On Sunday, July 27, 2014 5:19:01 PM UTC-7, wrote:
"On 23 July 2012, two coronal mass ejections (CME) burst out of

the Sun's surface within 15 minutes of each other and headed out

into space at more than 3,000km per second. If they had erupted

nine days earlier Earth would have been directly in its path.

Instead, NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO)

satellite was perfectly positioned to record the blast.



For a paper [PDF] in the journal Space Weather, scientists

analyzed the data from STEREO and found that the CMEs were the

largest yet measured - and could even have exceeded the

notorious 1859 Carrington event. Had they hit us, the resulting

electromagnetic disturbance could have taken out most of the

GPS network, communications satellites, electrical grids and

some servers."



See:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07...st_one_ week/

&

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news...ul_superstorm/


Those two CMEs combined could have been worth 1e14 kg. Most individual CMEs are worth something less than 1e13 kg.
  #3  
Old July 29th 14, 08:10 PM posted to sci.space.policy
David Spain[_4_]
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Posts: 314
Default Boffins tell of solar storm near-miss; 'We'd still be picking upthe pieces now'

In a barely related side note. Thumbing through the cable TV stations last night I happened to land on Pat Robertson's 700 Club that was reporting this very story. After the factual presentation, Mr. Robertson came back on with the opine that "we" barely missed "The End". Well for a broad interpretation of "we" that includes the religious satellite broadcaster CBN, I suppose that interpretation could have been quite true.

Dave
 




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