Trouble for satellites and other tech??

[JaKaacH]

Cosmic tsunami heading our way...
Tuesday night as tons of plasma from a massive solar flare

[kaisersozei]

Interesting, thanks for the post! Might explain the problems we were having last night with Comcast--digital TV signal breaking up, long lag times on internet.

That was almost as bad as Y2K. And the time the planets lined up. It won't matter after 2012 anyway.
Good thing lightening didn't hit the gulf oil spill and blow up the atmosphere.
We're all going to die.

Didn't notice the solar flare here.

[markem]

It won't be that big of an event and certainly not a solar "tsunami" (unless you define "tsunami" as merely an inconvenient wave).

[shark]

They were saying that we could see some aurora activity in the sky last night, but I didn't see a damn thing. Poseurs!

[JaKaacH]

Here is a great show that explains what could happen to the power grid, and other tech when we are hit by a not so inconvenient wave.

http://www.history.com/shows/the-uni...ason-5#slide-2

[markem]

from http://www.spaceweather.com/

IONOSPHERIC DISTURBANCE: The C4-class solar flare of Aug. 14th bathed Earth's upper atmosphere in X-rays and caused a wave of ionization to sweep over Europe. This improved the propagation of low-frequency radio signals which use the ionosphere as a reflector to skip over the horizon. A SID monitor operated by Jan Karlovsky of Hlohovec, Slovakia, recorded the effect:

"SID" stands for Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance, and a "SID monitor" is a radio receiver that monitors ~20 kHz signals from distant transmitters. "My system easily detected the effects of the solar flare," says Karlovsky. "I monitor two stations: DHO38 in Germany (23.4 kHz) and GQD in Great Britian (22.1 kHz). The German signal was most strongly boosted."

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Those of us who pay careful attention to solar flares (I'm interested for radio propagation and protecting my substantial investment in radio gear) know that "the big one" could (COULD) one day come as could a black hole beam, etc. etc. The odds of it happening in our lifetime (or in several lifetimes to come) in a way that leads to catastrophe (as opposed to a planned inconvenience) is very low. Talking to Europe and Australia with 20 watts has been a blast lately.