Articles in Sun
Regarding Current Upheavals…
The famously predicted “earth changes” could finally be in effect. As of now the various natural disasters could just be a statistical blip, but give us a few more (watch this week, and June 1 through July 1) and not only will many prophets appear spot on, but the world will start to panic – although I’m unsure of any short-term measurement for this, except for polling folk.
So if it continues, what is the cause??
a) Patrick Geryl suggests the Sun will be becoming increasingly erratic, leading to a crustal displacement in 2012.
b) The next solar maximum could be big, and increased flares and CMEs could cause all sorts of bother to our planet. Experts keep changing their minds over how big or small the next maximum will be…
c) I’ve noticed an increased in likelihood of events around full moons and especially eclipses. Gravity between the Sun, Moon and Earth cannot …
Meteoroid Tracking / New 2012 Drink / Missing Sunspots
NASA is installing a network of smart cameras across the USA to track fireballs and meteoroids. Soon there will be 15, and then they plan to expand nationwide. These cameras are automated and linked together so that they can triangulate paths and orbits. If NASA was expecting an influx of fireballs (and alternative media outlets are suggesting this is already happening), such data could prove to be important. But it could just be that NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office is wanting to he more helpful when they get phone calls from the public. More info at PhysOrg, and the official NASA site has live and historical images from the cameras.
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According to the website of Australia’s antidote to “energy drinks”, esc, if you are concerned about 2012, their drink will let you Escape into a zen state of mind!
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The latest in a long line of solar cycle theories has just been published …
Solar Flare Update
The biggest solar flare in four years has sent charged particles hurtling towards Earth. ABC News says:
The radiation from Monday’s flare, known as a Coronal Mass Ejection, should pass the Earth today, Friday and Saturday. The charged particles will speed by at some 560 miles per second.
…What makes this storm interesting, said Joe Kunches of the Space Weather Prediction Center, is that there were actually three flares in succession — and radiation from the last and biggest of them is travelling faster than the particles from the first two.
“What’s the effect of the triple punch?” said Kunches. “Stay tuned.” Outbursts such as the current one are actually quite common, scientists say. But modern technology can be sensitive to solar storms; scientists say satellites, power grids and communications networks can suffer outages.
The worst that we can expect would be pagers not working, some minor power blackouts, planes on polar routes changing course, …
X-Flare, CME Heading Towards Earth
This just in from SpaceWeather.com:
Sunspot 1158 has unleashed the strongest solar flare in more than four years. The eruption, which peaked at 0156 UT on Feb. 15th, registered X2 on the Richter scale of solar flares… X-flares are the strongest type of solar flare, and this is the first such eruption of new Solar Cycle 24. In addition to flashing Earth with UV radiation, the explosion also hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) in our direction…. Geomagnetic storms are likely when the CME arrives ~48 hours hence.
Sun-Moon-Earth Magnetic Relationship
For most people, the moon is a lump of barren rock that provides us with moonlight, and is the cause of tides. Along with that, we know that gravity is less on the moon, allowing astronauts to take floating steps. Few people know that our moon has a magnetic field, just like the Sun and Earth have – meaning it isn’t as dead as it appears. These snippets are from Wikipedia, which states that the information is still speculative:
Roughly once every Lunar orbit, the Moon passes through Earth’s magnetotail for approximately 6 days around full moon. More here.
Interaction with the plasma sheet causes the Moon’s surface to become negatively charged.
The moon’s dayside is lightly charged, while the nightside is strongly charged
The relationship is interesting. We have the Sun which has a magnetic reversal every 11 years or so, and in-between cycles the magnetic field varies quite a lot. We have …
The Sun… and us
A giant eruption (aka CME) on the far side of the Sun has some 2012ers bracing for the worst. Odds are everything will be OK, but this is one of those weeks in which the SH might hit TF. And we’ve just had a 7.0 earthquake in the Loyalty Islands.
Might be nothing – but the trend is that our Sun is becoming the predominant game player…
Birds, Fish and Crabs Dying in Great Numbers
There’s a lot of talk about these (perhaps) mysterious deaths, both online in conspiracy forums, and in mainstream media. A good summary of all the events is at News.com.au. At this stage, I think the only way we’ll be able to solve this (if it needs solving) is for it to happen again, in great numbers around the world. Here are what I think are leading contenders for why:
A solar and lunar eclipse within a short time-frame. Possibly in conjunction with changes with the Sun, or within our planet, that could lead to a geomagnetic reversal. In which case things will only get worse. Proof could come in the 6 weeks surrounding June 15 2011 – the period has three eclipses.
HAARP. This US Govt. project gets blamed for many strange occurrences. I wouldn’t be surprised if Russia has a HAARP of their own. Perhaps they have timed these events to …
2012: Brightest Northern Lights
According to NASA, 2012 will be the big one for observing the Northern Lights. Scientists say that they “should at least be visible as far south as Rome.”
Icelandic photographer Orvar Thorgiersso says “By the year 2012 if you catch the moment the Sun is spewing out solar storms directly at the earth you will be truly awestruck. It will be like nothing you’ve ever seen before.”
And of course phones, GPS and the power grid could be affected. Perhaps we will just look up to sky and go “ah-ha, that’s why my phone isn’t working tonight”.
Sun v. Trains: Sun Wins
Most 2012 talk involving the Sun covers things like a cataclysmic breakdown of a power grid, and the effects of solar bursts in 1859 and 1989. Most people are unaware of these more subtle effects from recent times:
Although it would take a truly massive space storm to cause a catastrophe, it is becoming clear that even modest solar activity poses a threat in our technology-dependent world. It makes railway signals go haywire and rusts oil pipelines to the point that they may leak, not to mention wearing down key components in power grids, which could drive up the cost of electricity.
In the far North of Russia, solar storms have caused train signals to switch from green to red erroneously – “Space storms may have the same effect on the rails as a train, generating unwanted electric currents that could cause the voltage between …
Solar Flare ‘Could Paralyse Earth’
This was discussed by US governmental bodies in the last year, and not much has been achieved. Perhaps the UK can be more prudent?
Nasa has warned that a peak in the sun’s magnetic energy cycle and the number of sun spots or flares around 2013 could generate huge radiation levels.
The resulting solar storm could cause a geomagnetic storm on Earth, knocking out electricity grids around the world for hours, days, or even months, bringing much of normal life grinding to a halt.
Defence Secretary Liam Fox, who delivered the keynote address at an international conference on the vulnerability of electricity grids around the world, warned that modern societies’ dependence on technology leaves them vulnerable to such events.
Fox added in the threat of nuclear detonations created by rogue nations that could also knock out power grids. Hopefully we will see government(s) take action to prevent a tragedy, rather than going Katrina on …
Bold Prediction from Patrick Geryl
According to Patrick Geryl, an 85-day (on average) pattern of solar storms has begun, and will culminate on Dec 21, 2012. Patrick believes that the ancient Mayans and Egyptians were aware of this cycle, and left coded messages. Here’s an excerpt from his blog 2012 Pro, via 2012 News:
On August 1st, the entire Earth-facing side of the sun erupted in a tumult of activity. There was a C3-class solar flare, a solar tsunami, multiple filaments of magnetism lifting off the stellar surface, large-scale shaking of the solar corona, radio bursts, a coronal mass ejection and more. Three days later, our planet Earth was hit with magnetic storms, yet not strong enough to dramatically disrupt life, yet strong enough to disturb certain GPS systems. Researchers had predicted the eruptions to take place around July 31st yet didn’t publish the prediction. Now, they want to make it a point about their next …
US Grid Concerns Continue
One of the leading voices in the 2012 Doomsday field, Lawrence Joseph, has focussed on the potential for the next solar cycle peak to wreak havoc on electrical grids worldwide, but especially in the USA. The reasons the USA is singled out are:
their grid is antiquated
their grid is overloaded
Even without the Sun being a factor, the USA power grid can still easily have a cascading blackout. The concerns have been acknowledged by the US government, and bodies like NASA. Some books and articles have pointed out how catastrophic a nationwide outage could be. Basically, if the grid has failed in many locations, repairing it could take up to 6 months. That’s 6 months without electricity that runs hospitals, pumps water, runs gas stations, and powers heating and air conditioning. It is quite likely that millions would die.
While President Obama is supposedly committed to upgrading the US grid, in reality it …
CME Heading for Earth
I don’t report all of these, because typically they amount to nothing of consequence. But there’s always the possibility of a CME causing us direct harm, and many believe that they can trigger earthquakes. This from Space Weather:
This morning around 0855 UT, Earth orbiting satellites detected a C3-class solar flare. The origin of the blast was sunspot 1092. At about the same time, an enormous magnetic filament stretching across the sun’s northern hemisphere erupted…
In short, we have just witnessed a complex global eruption involving almost the entire Earth-facing side of the sun.
A coronal mass ejection (CME) produced by the event is heading directly for Earth. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras when it arrives on or about August 3rd.
Protecting Earth: Governments Finally Getting Serious
The timing could be better, because Dec 2012 is only 2.5 years away, but better late than never!
Last month, Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R – CA) introduced the new bill before Congress, H.R. 5587, titled: “To establish a United States Commission on Planetary Defense and for other purposes.”
The commission will investigate the role of the United States in identifying NEOs (Near-Earth Objects), and their capabilities for neutralising any potential impacts. The budget is a pitiful $2 million, and has me wondering why Congress is even needed to debate the worthiness of it. Most scientists working in this field would tell you that there is no doubt about what is required – a huge amount of money to be spent ASAP. We have the capability to protect our planet, and so far we are sitting on our hands…
Meanwhile over at Space Daily is a report on a meeting in Germany attended by …
Major Hole in Our Sun – Brace Yourselves
(if someone has more information, such that we shouldn’t be concerned, please post a comment…)
Once again there’s an interesting discussion over at Above Top Secret. This time it concerns a coronal hole in our Sun that has just appeared. Supposedly these holes tend to occur at solar maximums, and we are not meant to have the next maximum until 2012/2013. So either this is just unusual timing for a coronal hole, or the maximum has arrived far sooner than predicted. If it is the former, then hold on to your hats, a CME might be heading our way (the NOAA says there is a “slight chance for a C-class flare” in the next 3 days). Last time, in 2003, a coronal hole was followed five days later by a deadly earthquake in Algeria. If it is the later, then the biggest concern is that the USA has not upgraded their …
