Thanks for pointing me to this! I had heard something about it, but didn’t know any details so I tried to find out to answer your question and I’ve just learned a lot! ๐
Basically, NASA scientists believe the Sun’s 11-year cycle will peak in 2011 and there will strong solar flares. These would have the potential to disrupt national power grids (that could overheat) and air travel severely disrupted while electronic items, navigation devices and major satellites could stop working. A similar thing happened in 1859. Since we are much more dependent on electric communication and energ, the effects could be much worse.
It’s important to know it’s likely to happen, analyse the risks and take action to prevent major damage. So NASA and other scientists and governments are trying to prepare for this: satellites can be sent offline during big flares, power grids and communication networks can be shielded against electromagnetic radiation and so on.
I think if we prepare properly and all measures are in place, we’ll be ok. The important thing is not ignore the warnings from scientists and be prepared! ๐
If you have a look at the New Scientist from the 12 June 2010, there is a whole article about the sun, its cycle, and the abundance of sun flares and sun spots – I highly recommend it, it’s a fascinating and well written article. Loads of sun flares correlates with lots of sun spots, and currently the trend is low abundance of sun spots – which is assumed to affect our climate (a recent paper just linked the latest frigid european winter of 2009/2010 with low solar activity (i.e., low numbers of sun spots)). Hope that answers your question – if not, let me know, I have the article here and I’d be happy to discuss it more if needed ๐
Solar flares will hit the earth with lots of magnetic energy so this has the potential disrupt everything from emergency servicesโ systems, hospital equipment, banking systems and air traffic control devices, through to โeverydayโ items such as home computers, iPods and Sat Navs and electricity outages. Hopefully, we have enough time to prepare to minimize the damage!
Well I suppose the real worste that could happen is in the film 2012, just add another year to the title, but personally I don’t think too much will come from it. We will analyse what is expected, climate change and any affects to electronics and take the proper precautions to protect us from this and we should be ok. Just be ready ๐
I don;t think anyone knows for sure, but it seems the peak is predicted to be in May 2013. If you really want to know more details, you can have a look at the NASA site and follow their updates:
I still think you should have a look at the latest results and predictions (that link is about predictions made in 2009) – no one really knows what the sun activity will be (it’s a science in its infancy with quite some uncertainties), and there is huge debate as to whether these peaks will happen or not…
I did say these are predictions – of course no-one knows for sure, this is science we’re talking about! ๐
But just in case the predictions are correct, only if we prepare in advance can we minimise the potential damage. So I think it’s great that people are paying attention to the predictions and getting ready for the possibility!
Comments
silicadioxide commented on :
Thanks! that helped a lot! what would the duration of these flares be though?
Paula commented on :
Hi silicadioxide
I don;t think anyone knows for sure, but it seems the peak is predicted to be in May 2013. If you really want to know more details, you can have a look at the NASA site and follow their updates:
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2009/29may_noaaprediction/
Nathalie commented on :
Hi both,
I still think you should have a look at the latest results and predictions (that link is about predictions made in 2009) – no one really knows what the sun activity will be (it’s a science in its infancy with quite some uncertainties), and there is huge debate as to whether these peaks will happen or not…
Paula commented on :
Hi Nathalie
I did say these are predictions – of course no-one knows for sure, this is science we’re talking about! ๐
But just in case the predictions are correct, only if we prepare in advance can we minimise the potential damage. So I think it’s great that people are paying attention to the predictions and getting ready for the possibility!
Nathalie commented on :
Hi Paula,
True – but predictions have changed a lot and that’s my point… ๐