** STRONG GEOMAGNETIC STORM IN PROGRESS ****

NOAA / Space Weather Prediction Center

SWPC Space Weather Advisory

Official Space Weather Advisory issued by NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center Boulder, Colorado, USA

SPACE WEATHER ADVISORY BULLETIN #10- 1
2010 April 05 at 12:13 p.m. MST (2010 April 05 1213 UTC)

**** STRONG GEOMAGNETIC STORM IN PROGRESS ****

A geomagnetic storm began at 05:55 AM EST Monday, April 5, 2010. Space weather storm levels reached Strong (G3) levels on the Geomagnetic Storms Space Weather Scale. The source of the storming is an Earth-directed Coronal Mass Ejection associated with a weak solar flare that occurred in Active Region 1059 on April 3 at 05:54 AM EST. This is expected to be an isolated storm that should subside quickly. Other than the flare and CME erupting on April 3, this active region has not produced any significant activity. Systems that can be affected include electric power systems, spacecraft operations, high-frequency communications, GPS, and other navigation systems.

For current space weather conditions see: Space Weather Now, Today's Space Weather and Space Weather Alerts

Ummm.... This happened in April.... Your point is?...

2000


From: United States Geological Survey

Media advisory: geomagnetic storm alert
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reports a sudden increase in geomagnetic activity that may signal the onset of a geomagnetic storm. While it is geomagnetic storms that give rise to the beautiful Northern lights, they can also pose a serious threat for commercial and military satellite operators, power companies, astronauts, and they can even shorten the life of oil pipelines in Alaska by increasing pipeline corrosion.

A significant increase in geomagnetic activity was observed at about 12:45 p.m. (ET) on Thursday, April 6, 2000. Space Weather sources at NOAA & NASA indicate that the likely cause of this increased activity is due to an interplanetary shock wave that was detected by the ACE satellite at about 12:30 p.m. (ET) today. Magnetic activity increased at all USGS magnetic observatories about 15 minutes later and could be significant over the next 24-48 hours. If this geomagnetic activity continues, there is the possibility for visible aurora at mid-latitudes. Plots of the data from these observatories can be seen on-line at: [link to geomag.usgs.gov]

Geomagnetic storms occur when plasma, a hot ionized gas of charged particles produced by eruptions on the Sun, impacts the Earth's magnetic field causing it to fluctuate wildly. These fluctuations cause currents to flow in conductors on the ground and in space. Solar eruptions can produce billions of tons of plasma traveling at speeds in excess of a million miles an hour.

The USGS provides valuable geomagnetic data to a wide variety of users and organizations that are affected by geomagnetic storms. The agency operates a network of 14 magnetic observatories that continuously monitor the Earth's magnetic field. The data are collected in near-real time via satellite to a downlink center located in Golden, Colo., and provided to numerous customers including NOAA's Space Environment Center and the U.S. Air Force Space Command Center.

As the nation's largest water, earth and biological science, and civilian mapping agency, the USGS works in cooperation with more than 2000 organizations across the country to provide reliable, impartial, scientific information to resource managers, planners, and other customers. This information is gathered in every state by USGS scientists to minimize the loss of life and property from natural disasters, to contribute to the conservation and the sound economic and physical development of the nation's natural resources, and to enhance the quality of life by monitoring water, biological, energy, and mineral resources.

This press release and in-depth information about USGS programs may be found on the USGS home page: www.usgs.gov. To receive the latest USGS news releases automatically by email, send a request to [email protected]. Specify the listserver(s) of interest from the following names: water-pr; geologic-hazards-pr; biological-pr; mapping-pr; products-pr; lecture-pr. In the body of the message write: subscribe (name of listserver) (your name). Example: subscribe water-pr joe smith.

The Newest Threat to All Human Life on Earth: Solar Storms

Oh man, ever since global warming came on the scene it seems like our apocalyptic scenarios are all rising sea levels and spreading tropical disease. Now NASA has come up with an awesome new way the earth might get destroyed.

In 1859, a geomagnetic storm sparked by a huge solar flare swept over the Earth. Telegraph wires shorted out and set houses on fire. A brilliant aurora was seen in Hawaii—so bright that "people could read newspapers by [its] red and green glow." Scientists predict that in May 2013, the sun's solar cycle will peak at about the same level as in 1859. Get ready for space weather!

Next week, scientists will meet at the Space Weather Enterprise Forum in DC to talk about how to prevent civilization from being destroyed in the next few years by solar storms. The ability to monitor and predict so-called "space weather"—solar flares, interplanetary magnetic fields, etc.—is a relatively new capability. But what scientists have found is sort of unsettling. They predict a marked increase in solar storms over the next few years. According to NASA scientist Richard Fisher: "The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity."

This is bad news for anyone who likes electronic things. As Fisher says, "Our technological society has developed an unprecedented sensitivity to solar storms." That's because today we're so dependent on technology hooked up to satellites, which can be disabled or destroyed by huge waves of charged particles spit out by the sun during a solar storm: GPS, cell phones—even credit card transactions use a satellite. In a worst-case simulation, reported by NPR, a particularly severe solar storm not only took out the majority of commercial satellites, it also charged power lines to the point where transformers blew all over the world, "leaving millions of people in northern latitudes without power."

Ideally, we could send Bruce Willis into the sun and have him put a nuclear bomb on it. But really the only thing we can do now to deal with sun storms is to predict them and put satellites in "safe" mode, according to NASA. As for all those exploding transformers and power-outages: At least we'll be able to read our newspapers. [NASA]