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  • Sun flares threaten Earth


    Spanish to English translation

    Sun flares threaten Earth
    UN calls for improved surveillance and early warning systems of these phenomena, which will grow in coming years and can be destructive. One of these waves arrive today

    NUNO DOM?NGUEZ MADRID 06/10/2011 8:20 Updated: 10/06/2011 17:27

    The sun struck a blow yesterday
    While reading these lines, a huge bubble of solar material on the planet. Comes from a huge blaze that left the Sun on Tuesday and, after traveling 150 million kilometers, "can now" to Earth, according Blai Sanabria, head of the space-time at the University of Barcelona. This type of explosion releases between 1,000 and 10,000 million tons of matter at high temperatures. Tuesday's travels around 1,400 miles per second, according to calculations by NASA, which warned that an eruption is where the level of radiation is minimal, ie it should not cause damage on Earth.

    But the announcement has once again highlight what are the earthlings naked to the rare but potential solar storms. When the sun flares, known as flares, arrive in perfect alignment with the earth, causing dramatic changes in the magnetic shield that protects the planet. This can cut down the electrical system of whole regions, leaving no radio commercial aircraft, burning oil and even frustrate financial transactions. Despite technological advances, man has little ability to react to these events.

    "We can predict the worst half-hour storms before they reach the Earth " , recognizes Consuelo Cid, one of the group responsible for space weather at the University of Alcal? de Henares, which, together with that of Sanahuja, is the only issue alert to these phenomena.

    Space Weather
    While most mortals live outside the space weather, it can cause losses of more than a billion euros and wreak havoc to take ten years to repair. For this, and because the Sun is increasing its activity towards its peak in 2013, the UN has just raise the alarm to require that a consistent global forecasting service to solar storms. "No country has the resources alone, we need observations from around the globe " , said the director of space weather program weather arm of the UN, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). He did recently at a conference in which 189 countries pledged to coordinate a new and improved alert service, reports Reuters.

    "We predict a half hour before," says an expert

    The more advanced the human being to new technologies, is more exposed to these phenomena. The greatest solar storm on record occurred on September 1, 1859. Was detected with a telescope by the British astronomer Richard Carrington, who was dazzled by a bright light. Before dawn on September 2, "the skies with auroras were stained red, green and purple so bright that anyone could read the newspaper as a full day " , according to NASA.

    Aurora that the particles produced arrivals from the Sun to collide with the atmosphere. Its effect was felt in the magnetic field generated by the Earth around and influencing the electrical currents. Therefore, this September 2, telegraph systems cramps gave its operators, its paper rolls were burnt and the transmissions continued to operate even when turned off the system. If the same storm happen now, when much of the satellite-based telecommunications exposed to solar radiation and half the world is crossed by power lines, the losses would be between one and two trillion dollars (about 1.5 billion euros), according to a study by the American Academy of Sciences was quoted by Reuters.

    There has already been feigned. In 1989 a solar storm knocked the power grid in Quebec (Canada) in the still chilly in March . In 2003, another storm knocked 15 transformers in South Africa, a country that thought there was no risk of damage from these events.

    "No country has the resources alone," says UN

    Risk to aircraft
    "Commercial aviation is particularly threatened," he told this newspaper Lafeuille Jerome, head of the WMO Space Observations. The Earth's magnetic field, which acts as a shield against solar storms is much weaker at the poles, where it can enter the flare. "There are more flights over the poles. The last year was 8,000. Still do not know the effects of radiation on the crew, but you can leave the aircraft without a radio. The industry needs an international warning system to distribute notices sufficient time to redistribute the cheap " , warns Lafeuille.

    Similarly, solar storms can disrupt satellite positioning system leader in the world, the U.S. GPS. This system not only provides guidance to millions of users, but also controls commercial transactions on stock exchanges and automated agricultural systems, as Lafeuille. "We have a more coordinated warning system in early 2012," he said.

    A storm like that of 1859 would cause damage of one billion dollars

    But the problem is not just coordination. Meteorologists today can predict whether it will rain at three in the afternoon in the final at Roland Garros, but in the 30's just gave one. "With respect to space weather forecasting, we are still in the thirties," says Sanabria. For now we know that storms are slow in coming to Earth from one to five days, "he says. When the magnetic field of the Sun and the Earth line up in reverse is when the worst storms occur, as the planet acts like a magnet.

    Solar storms affect mainly countries closer to the poles where the magnetic field is smaller. Spain is well protected thanks to the magnetic field axis. Systems of weather prediction is based on observations made ​​with a large network of satellites, but for space weather, the observation instruments barely reach the ten and become obsolete, without having a replacement in the case of the SOHO and the ACE , which used Sanahuja and Cid. The predictions are made ​​"with respect to past events likely, the problem is that we know very little," says Cid. "We have made ​​progress, but still a long way."

  • #2
    Re: Sun flares threaten Earth

    Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/pe...g-2296759.html

    Tom Bogdan: 'The sky at night stops me from sleeping'
    The head of the world's only civilian operation to forecast solar storms is a worried man. Steve Connor reports

    Monday, 13 June 2011
    Tom Bogdan says our increasing reliance on GPS systems has left us all more vulnerable to a solar storm

    Tom Bogdan doesn't strike you as the nervous type but there is one thing that does keep him awake at night. His insomnia is caused by a 14-year-old satellite sitting between the Earth and the Sun some 1.5 million km away which he fears may one day suddenly die, so leaving the world without a vital early-warning system against a devastating solar storm.

    Dr Bogdan is head of the US Space Weather Prediction Centre, the only civilian operation in the world dedicated to forecasting the size and timing of solar storms on a 24/7 basis. The satellite disturbing his sleep, the Advanced Composition Explorer, was designed with a lifetime of just two years ? which is why, 14 years after its launch, Dr Bogdan gets worried...more from the source

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