All this talk about space heater antennas and blowtorch mic stands has me thinking about solar activity.
All this talk about space heater antennas and blowtorch mic stands has me thinking about solar activity.
We had an internet and cellphone outage earlier this afternoon, for about an hour or so. That means multiple systems that aren't interconnected, so it had to be some sort of very wide-band disruption.
... Prompted me to look at space weather. Looks like old Sol is having some fits in his spots, rendering about a 25% chance of an X-class flare, the biggest kind, which would knock out communications planet-wide.
Does anyone have a live widget that updates space weather/possibility of such comm blackouts?
What frequencies would be the most and also least vulnerable?
If an x-flare "wipes everything out," will we recover?
Will all the equipment be fried?
Will people get burns?
Should we hide below ground?
whatever it is, it is great for listening to shortwave!
should we expect any benefit on our mediumwave signals?
Best place to monitor the solar activity is at the SOHO website. They constantly look at the thing and update their images and movies of the sun daily. They also have a graph charting the flare activities and such.
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/
RFB
Will all the equipment be fried?
Carl, there was a show on Coast To Coast AM about this not to long ago, If I recall right, it would fry it, but only if it was turned on at the time it occurred.
(But quite frankly, I can't be sure of what I heard, not after what I thought I heard you say and didn't!)
When you thought I said the banned words there was a solar flare at that exact moment.
Now we know what can happen. We imagine people are saying wild and crazy things.
I am wearing cooking mits as we speak.
Will all the equipment be fried?
Will people get burns?
Well imagine one gigantic microwave oven magnetron shooting a gazillion watt signal.
That will cook enough hamburgers to feed the entire universe.
And as you may or may not know....microwaves (which is what X-rays are..very very tiny wavelengths of EM emissions), cooks from the INSIDE-OUT.
Sun burn will be nothing compared to an X-Burn.
But there are things you can do to protect yourself and your devices. Just do not do what some have spouted on Youtube about wearing aluminum foil! Sure go ahead and do that if you want to basically turn yourself into a baked potato!
Faraday cage will work. A Faraday cage that is well grounded can help provide some protection, though it will not be 100 percent protection.
Best solution is to be indoors or in a basement. If you dont have one, simply dig a hole and scurry down like a rabbit running from a fox. The dirt serves quite well as a radiation shield. Water is also a good radiation shield...the best in fact. So if you live near a lake or have a pool, might want to go diving for awhile....just make sure you have enough oxygen in the tanks because a mass solar ejection may last from several hours to several days.
RFB
Just in case.....
Here is a useful link for solar activity.
http://prop.hfradio.org/
Now if you will excuse me i have to go outside and squint my eyes to maybe catch the Aurora. Never mind too much light pollution here.
According to the Radio Engineer Paul Thurst, we are in a period for possible solar trouble
http://www.engineeringradio.us/blog/
Carl,
I would totally agree. In my part of the country, we haven't seen the sun for quite awhile. That's because it's Winter for another few weeks. -Puxatawny Phil
All right, I think I see what is meant.
What about winter hemispheres that are not in focus with the sun. If there's a big solar outburst, what happens to winter locations?
Heh-heh ... a projected one bounced off the North Pole about a week ago (Valentine's day), knocked out communications up there for a while. Wasn't as devastating as predicted, didn't see any reports of radio gear exploding, but the sky was gorgeous ...
These things cause plasma waves of charged particles. The good news is we'll see it coming before it gets here. I hope my camera is up to the task 😉