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Sunday, January 29, 2012

01-29-2012: Solar Flare Storms

"A string of massive solar storms have unleashed their fury on the Earth in the last 48 hours, just the first set of strong solar storms expected to hit our planet in the coming months. NASA scientists report that the most solar flare — the strongest one to date this year — erupted Friday from the same active region of the sun that triggered a raging solar tempest earlier this week... the latest coronal mass ejection (CME) was moving at almost 1,553 miles per second, warning that it could cause a number of disruptions."

Read more: http://www.thestatecolumn.com/science/focus-on-solar-storms-takes-priority-at-nasas-goddard-space-weather-center/#ixzz1ksufpsno

http://www.space.com/14387-biggest-solar-flare-2012-radiation-storm.html

Solar flares hit Earth with 3 effects at different times. First comes "electromagnetic radiation" which is mostly a concern for satellite disruption and astronauts in space. Next, radiation in the form of protons arrives @ 93 million m.p.h. -- followed by the "coronal mass ejection" of plasma from the sun itself (travels from one-to-four million m.p.h. It's the plasma that causes much of the noticeable problems on Earth's surface, such as the 1989 electrical grid outage in Quebec.

Note: Auroras are the visual effects we most commonly associate with solar flares.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_%28astronomy%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronal_mass_ejection

Solar storms and us:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30TXQkNBB9k&feature=related
1989 Quebec Outage:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1989_geomagnetic_storm
Austin outage Jan. 28 -29th???:
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2012/01/29/austin_energy_expects_to_have.html
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/power/