Will the Earth blackout in 2013? Earth blackout in 2013
Will the Earth blackout in 2013? Check the Video If you’ve had your fill of apocalyptic scenarios, earthquakes, volcanoes and global warming, here comes a new threat which may wipe out the world in 2013.
Imagine a scene from any of Hollywood’s disaster films. An eerie scene where mobile phones go on the blink, GPS is knocked out, TVs go blank and the world is plunged into chaos.
Looks like disaster flicks aren’t too removed from reality since all this could well be the potential result of a gigantic solar storm, according to a new report by NASA. The report, a warning, says Earth and space are coming together in a way that’s new to human history.
A solar storm, which is essentially violent eruptions in the sun, can eject destructive radiation and charged particles into space. These are closely connected to magnetic fields – which are hazardous for satellites and space stations.
There are reports of a geomagnetic storm sparked by a huge solar flare that swept over the Earth in 1859. Telegraph wires shorted out and set houses on fire. A brilliant aurora was seen in Hawaii—so bright that “people could read newspapers by [its] red and green glow.” Scientists predict that in May 2013, the sun’s solar cycle will peak at about the same level as in 1859. (This content courtesy a post on Gawker.com)
High-tech systems are critical for life as we know it today. Everything that we depend on and take for granted – air travel, GPS navigation, banking services (even a credit card transaction uses a satellite) and emergency radio communications – can all be knocked out by intense solar activity.
To get an idea of scale, a massive solar storm could result in 20 times more damage than the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina which hit south-eastern US in August 2005. The storm killed 1,800 people and caused damages worth $81 billion.
Some good news is that some of the damage and destruction can be avoided with warning of an impending solar storm. There is technology to put satellites in ‘safe mode’ and disconnect transformers to protect them from destructive electrical surges.
The task of accurately forecasting a solar storm lies with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the US. “Space weather forecasting is still in its infancy, but we’re making rapid progress,” said Thomas Bogdan, director of NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado.
The key for Bogdan lies in NASA and NOAA collaborating. “NASA’s fleet of heliophysics research spacecraft provides us with up-to-the-minute information about what’s happening on the sun. They are an important complement to our own GOES and POES satellites, which focus more on the near-Earth environment.”
Says Bogdon, “I believe we’re on the threshold of a new era in which space weather can be as influential in our daily lives as ordinary terrestrial weather.”
REVIEWS:
1) Stan Dalone
They're expecting that solar storms may get active in that year, which has the potential to disrupt our satellite communications. An exceptionally bad solar storm (which happened back in the 1860s IIRC) could potentially wipe out most of our satellite communications, and could disrupt earthbound electronics. But it wouldn't have any effects on us directly. The Sun will still shine as usual, etc. You'd see some pretty amazing auroras near the poles though!
2) Guest
According to the latest theory by space scientist Dr. John C. Mather who gave the theory for the formation of the universe .
the theory in (aerospace science)astro- space:-
1)The LHD(large hadron collider )showed that if a particle is collided with the nucleus at 7TEV(terra electronvolt) the universe will be formed again.(at a small level).
2) This revealed that light falling on earth may destroy it in a year or 2 since the energy of the sun trapped by the earth is causing earthquakes and hurricanes.
3)in the mayan calender it is written"thy wold de'troyth in 13"meaning that the world to be destroyed after 13 years after the evil eclipse that took place oin 2000 (13 is a unlucky number).
ScienceDaily (Mar. 16, 2004) — WASHINGTON -
OLD POSTS:
On 4 November 2003, the largest solar flare ever recorded exploded from the Sun's surface, sending an intense burst of radiation streaming towards the Earth. Before the storm peaked, x-rays overloaded the detectors on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES), forcing scientists to estimate the flare's size.
Taking a different route, researchers from the University of Otago used radio wave-based measurements of the x-rays' effects on the Earth's upper atmosphere to revise the flare's size from a merely huge X28 to a "whopping" X45, say researchers Neil Thomson, Craig Rodger, and Richard Dowden. X-class flares are major events that can trigger radio blackouts around the world and long-lasting radiation storms in the upper atmosphere that can damage or destroy satellites. The biggest previous solar flares on record were rated X20, on 2 April 2001 and 16 August 1989.
"This makes it more than twice as large as any previously recorded flare, and if the accompanying particle and magnetic storm had been aimed at the Earth, the damage to some satellites and electrical networks could have been considerable," says Thomson. Their calculations show that the flare's x-ray radiation bombarding the atmosphere was equivalent to that of 5,000 Suns, though none of it reached the Earth's surface, the researchers say.
At the time of the flare, the researchers were probing the ionosphere with radio waves as part of a long-term research program. Their new measurement comes from observations of the indirect effects of the increased x-ray radiation on very low frequency (VLF) radio transmissions across the Pacific Ocean from Washington State, North Dakota, and Hawaii to their receivers in Dunedin, New Zealand.
"Increases in x-rays enhance the ionosphere, causing its lowest region to decrease in altitude, which in turn affects the phase of VLF transmissions. Our previous research shows that these phase shifts are proportional to the number of kilometers [miles] by which the ionosphere is lowered," they say. As the lowering is known to relate directly to the amount of x-ray radiation present, the team could make a new measurement of the flare's size, they say.
"We were at the right place, at the right time with the right knowledge--which was based on nearly 15 years of work by staff and students in the Physics Department's Space Physics Group." The research would not have been possible, they added, without data provided by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Environment Center, which came up with the initial X28 estimate.
"We used their solar measurements to calibrate the response of the atmosphere to x-rays, so when this event overloaded the satellite detectors, we were in a unique position to make this measurement. Given that any future flares are unlikely to be large enough to overload the ionosphere, we believe that our new method has great advantages in determining their size in the event of satellite detector overloads," they say.
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