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Violent Solar Storm Headed Towards Earth
A giant solar flare has erupted out of our sun, and its impacts are just now being felt on planet Earth. Have a look at the amazing slide show of photos captured by NowPublic members.
If you have noticed intense displays of northern lights, you're experiencing the first effects.
Look up tonight - although the effects of this burst are in decline, there should be some display in many areas. And if you are really interested have a look at SpaceWeather.com. We think that much of the information below originated with it.
A violent explosion in the Sun's atmosphere is bombarding the Earth at over 1 M km/h, which will cause a brilliant light show while threatening to damage power grids and communications systems.Images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory showed a bright flash near the Sun's equator overnight. Several of SOHO's sensors became temporarily overwhelmed by the amount of radiation emitted by the flares.
On December 13, a solar flare from sunspot 930 has sent a giant coronal mass ejection directly toward Earth. The X-Class flare was classified as one of the larger outbursts from the sun.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued an advisory reporting a geomagnetic storm in progress that has produced strong radiation blackouts. Strong to severe geomagnetic storming is expected through Friday. The advisory warns of potential disruptions over the next four days. The astronauts on the space shuttle will be safe from the sun's cloud of gas, NOAA said.
The danger from such strong solar flares is that they send out clouds of charged particles that could damage communication systems and power grids.
Nevertheless this solar flare will cause the so-called Northern Lights, which are a tremendous lights show.
December 15, 2006 at 11:43 am by Actual News Geezer, 3513 views, 4 comments
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (4)
at 11:58 on December 15th, 2006
Thanks for the lead.
Cheers
Ric
at 12:03 on December 15th, 2006
The photos that will be coming in soon are spectacular.
at 15:33 on December 15th, 2006
"The danger from such strong solar flares is that they send out clouds
of charged particles that could damage communication systems and power
grids."
Absolute rubbish. They say this everytime the is a larger than nomal flare
- reply
farlaneat 02:57 on December 16th, 2006
Nice post and kudos on gathering such a great set of photos! For anyone in Michigan or the Great Lakes, we have created a Nothern Lights Log over at Absolute Michigan where people can alert each other when the aurora is visible.
- reply
littleloriat 07:56 on December 16th, 2006
I got an "aurora warning" via email for more auroras tonight and possibly into tomorrow night! I know I'll be out there with my camera! Happy viewing!