huge solar storm hits earth no problems reported
published on thu mar 08 2012 the largest solar storm in five years has
engulfed earth but scientists say the planet has lucked out so far
WASHINGTON the largest solar storm in five years has engulfed earth but
scientists say the planet has lucked out so far the storm arrived more
peacefully thursday morning than it could have scientists say that could
change as the storm spends the day shaking the planets magnetic field it
could disrupt technology but also spread colourful northern lights the storm
started with a massive solar flare earlier in the week and grew as it raced
outward from the sun the storm arrived at earth about 6 am est so far
officials say there have been no reports of problems with power grids gps
satellites or other technologies that are often disrupted by solar storms the
storm is part of the suns normal 11 year cycle which is supposed to reach
peak storminess next year solar storms dont harm people but they do
disrupt technology and during the last peak around 2002 experts learned
that gps was vulnerable to solar outbursts because new technology has
flourished since then scientists could discover that some new systems are
also at risk said jeffrey hughes director of the center for integrated space
weather modeling at boston university this is a goodsize event but not the
extreme type said bill murtagh program coordinator for the federal
governments space weather prediction center the sun erupted tuesday
evening according to forecasters at the space weather centre the effects
could linger through friday morning storms like this start with sun spots
nasa solar physicist david hathaway said then comes an initial solar flare
of subatomic particles that resemble a filament coming out of the sun that
part already hit earth only minutes after the initial burst bringing radio and
radiation disturbances after that comes the coronal mass ejection which
looks like a growing bubble and takes a couple days to reach earth north
american utilities are monitoring for abnormalities on their grids and have
contingency plans said kimberly mielcarek spokeswoman for the north
american electric reliability corporation a consortium of electricity grid
operators in 1989 a strong solar storm knocked out the power grid in
quebec causing 6 million people to lose power solar storms can also make
global positioning systems less accurate and cause gps outages satellites
could be affected too nasa spokesman rob navias said the space agency
isn't taking any extra precautions to protect astronauts on the international
space station from added radiation