Solar storm 2012: Solar flares can create storm

Solar flares may make news in the year 2012. Meanwhile you can watch solar flare tonight. Many scientists say that it can create storm in the area where it will be visible A NASA report has said that a M2-class solar flare is heading towards earth. This may bring another great moment for sky watchers who spend nights trying to see small meteors on some given days. The solar flare that originated from sun, two days ago may show up on skies tonight. A NOAA report suggests that the flare was caused by Region 1401. Another flare was fired by another region on the sun, but that may not reach the earth. Solar flares send out bursts of electromagnetic energy that can occasionally disrupt communications and electrical systems.




For the past several years, the sun has been at a quiet end of its cycle and only recently has gotten more active. Solar cycles go in an 11-year period. This cycle has had fewer storms than usual for this time in its cycle. But that may be changing. Meanwhile the weather experts say that the geomagnetic storm created by the flare that originated from sun may cause severe storm in some areas. There have been predictions of devastating flare originating from the sun and doomsayers claimed that such flares may destroy many cities on earth. Some NASA-funded studies have earlier talked about a “Space Katrina” flare or coronal mass ejection that would devastate modern civilisation, bringing down power grids and frying satellites en masse. The report suggested that the flare may cause food to rot, trains to stop midway in its tracks and traffic gridlocked. The report also suggested that it may cause severe disruption in telephone and internet services. But then there are other experts who say that this is too far fetched and bleak scenario. They also suggest that there isn’t enough energy in the sun to send a killer fireball 93 million miles away to destroy Earth”. A solar eruption is followed by a one-two-three punch, said Antti Pulkkinen, a physicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and Catholic University. 'The whole volume of space between here and Jupiter is just filled with protons and you just don't get rid of them like that' Doug Biesecker, physicist First comes electromagnetic radiation, followed by radiation in the form of protons. Then, finally the coronal mass ejection - that's the plasma from the sun itself - hits. Usually that travels at about 1 or 2 million miles per hour, but this storm is particularly speedy and is shooting out at 4 million miles per hour, Mr Biesecker said. Plasma causes much of the noticeable problems on Earth, such as electrical grid outages. In 1989, a solar storm caused a massive blackout in Quebec. It can also pull the northern lights further south. But this coronal mass ejection seems likely to be only moderate, with a chance for becoming strong, Mr Biesecker said. The worst of the storm is likely to go north of Earth.
‘Dark gaps in the daily arcs are caused by cloud cover, whereas continuous bright tracks record glorious spells of sunny weather. Of course, in June, the Sun trails begin higher at the northern hemisphere's summer solstice. ‘The trails sink lower in the sky as December's winter solstice approaches. Last year's autumn was one of the balmiest on record in the UK, as the many bright arcs in the lower part of this picture testify.’