Did you know the Earth will only have 15 minutes to prepare…
Scientists from around the world are joining those in the United States in becoming alarmed at the possibility of a plasma cloud from a solar superstorm that could wipe out vast electronics networks, because they say Earth would have only a notice of about 15 minutes.
U.S. space scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Aeronautic Space Administration’s Goddard Space Flight Center have been expressing concern over what is fast becoming a “solar storm maximum.”
The alarms are now going off globally, with expressions of concern from European Union interests, the European Space Agency and Great Britain’s Royal Academy of Engineering, which is urging the British Space Weather Board to help that nation prepare for a massive solar flare.
Increasing Solar Flares
Given the intensity of the increasing flare spewing from the sun’s surface, experts agree that scientists would have only 15 minutes of warning of an intense solar flare – a huge plasma cloud of charged particles that can become a nightmare to unguarded electronics on earth.
This increased solar activity is occurring as sunspots multiply on the sun’s surface during what is expected to be its most active period, 2012-2013, in its 11-year cycle.
NASA believes that while the sun will reach its most intense period this year in the sun’s 11-year cycle, such magnetosphere activities which could continue to produce solar flares until 2020 as the sun exits the latest intense cycle.
Solar Flares and Communications
In communications, solar storms could affect ground-to-air, ship-to-shore and amateur radio frequencies. Television and commercial radio stations appear not to be not as affected. According to NOAA, high frequency radio wave communications are most affected since their frequency depends on reflection from the ionosphere to carry signals over long distances.
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