Space Space Weather SUNSPOTS
What a strange winter season we had this year. I’m left wondering what kind of Spring and Summer will follow. I blame it on the increasing solar activity, that scientist say is entering into a high level period in the cycle of sunspots, which are the source of eruptions and solar flares. If a solar flare is large enough, it will eject various types of charged particles, light wave lengths and other magnetically charged material from the surface of the Sun. This is called a coronal mass ejection, or C M E . Occasionally, some of these C M E ‘s , that are shot out into space, are Earth directed and can deliver much higher levels ( or amounts ) of radiation and electrically charged particles than normal.
Fortunately, Earth’s magnetic field acts like a shield around the planet that protects us from most of the bad effects of the Sun’s power, though we can still get our skin sunburned from time to time if not protected. However, if a C M E is very very large, it could become potentially harmful, particularly to electrical and communication equipment, due to the highly charged particles and wave lengths involved. Radio, TV, cell phone and satellite communications as well as computerized equipment and even the main electric grid and your car, all could be disabled temporarily or worse. Boy, would that suck ! A lot !!
All this pending doom from C M E’s goes unseen to our human eyes, except at night when and where the aurora borealis ( northern lights or southern lights ) is visible over the north and south poles of the Earth. These occur when the charged particles in the solar wind from the C M E collide with the Earth’s magnetic field ( shield ) and discharge or somehow react , producing waves or streaks of colored light in the night sky. Usually, the northern lights are only visible far north in Alaska and Canada, occasionally in the U.S. near the Canadian border. Recently though, after a rather large C M E , they were seen as far south as Georgia.
Anyway, with the increase of all this solar activity, I began wondering , could it also be the cause of the strange weather that most of the world has experienced this winter ? Could it also be the cause of the bad things I mentioned earlier, or something worse ?? Revelations 16:8 from the Bible came to mind : “ And the forth Angel poured out his vile upon the sun, and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. “. Yikes! But if we can’t see a C M E coming, how would we know when to or what to prepare for it.
Thank goodness that some of our tax dollars were spent on various types of monitoring equipment concerning this phenomenon. Via the internet, the private citizen can access some of this scientific apparatus. Now, after checking out the morning weather report and breaking news, I check on the Sun’s weather too, as it might also effect the Earth later. Some of the monitoring equipment will show results very quickly after a C M E , but the bulk of the solar flare storm usually takes a day or two or even three to reach the Earth, which gives us at least a little time to prepare for whatever could be coming our way.
If your interested in this sort of thing, check out my ‘Space Weather’ page in the SPACE section of the top menu bar of this website. You can keep yourself updated on the continuing activity of our powerful Sun, and know when to put on your lead underwear that your gym teacher accused you of wearing when you ran laps.
Classification of Solar Flares : CCCCCC
Space Weather.Com : SSSSSS