{"id":2992,"date":"2012-03-08T06:34:01","date_gmt":"2012-03-08T11:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/?p=2992"},"modified":"2012-03-08T06:34:01","modified_gmt":"2012-03-08T11:34:01","slug":"solar-flare-trust-gps-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/?p=2992","title":{"rendered":"SOLAR FLARE, DON&#8217;T TRUST YOUR GPS TODAY"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2rWB-lhUj-8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A massive solar storm is due to arrive at Earth early Thursday, and is expected to shake the globe&#8217;s magnetic field while expanding the Northern Lights.<\/p>\n<p>A giant blast of plasma spat from the sun at as much as 4 million miles per hour Tuesday &#8212; by some measures the largest solar event since late 2006 &#8212; and it could lead to serious issues on Earth, forcing some planes to reroute, knocking out\u00a0<a id=\"KonaLink0\" href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/scitech\/2012\/03\/07\/sun-fires-off-2-huge-solar-flares-could-impact-weather-on-earth\/#\"><span style=\"color: blue;\">power\u00a0grids<\/span><\/a>, and blacking out radios.<\/p>\n<p>The sun unleashed the cosmic double whammy late March 6, erupting with two major flares to cap a busy day of powerful solar storms,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.space.com\/14811-huge-solar-flares-erupt-sun.html\">Space.com reported<\/a>. One of the flares is the most powerful solar eruption so far this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSuper Tuesday? You bet!\u201d joked Joseph Kunches, a space weather scientist with the National Oceanic and\u00a0<a id=\"KonaLink1\" href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/scitech\/2012\/03\/07\/sun-fires-off-2-huge-solar-flares-could-impact-weather-on-earth\/#\"><span style=\"color: blue;\">Atmospheric<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Administration (NOAA).<\/p>\n<p>The storm grew as it raced outward from the sun, expanding like a giant soap bubble, scientists said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s hitting us right in the nose,&#8221; said Kunches.<\/p>\n<p>Both of the huge flares ranked as X-class storms, the strongest type of solar flares the sun can have. They followed several weaker, but still powerful, sun storms on Tuesday and came just days after another major solar flare on Sunday night.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy some measures this is the strongest one since December of 2006,\u201d Kunches explained. Solar activity has already led to an R3 level radio blackout on\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.swpc.noaa.gov\/NOAAscales\/\">NOAA\u2019s space weather scale<\/a>, he explained, a midstrength event on a scale that reaches to R5. Such effects are caused by X-ray emissions from the sun.<\/p>\n<p>The bigger effects will hit the planet over the next 24 hours.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cPower grid operators have all been alerted.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8211; Joseph Kunches, NOAA space weather scientist<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For one thing, geomagnetic storms &#8212; disturbances in the geomagnetic field that surrounds the planet &#8212; should hit the G3 level, midway up the scale. That could lead to surges in power lines (a major problem for power companies) and issues with\u00a0<a id=\"KonaLink2\" href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/scitech\/2012\/03\/07\/sun-fires-off-2-huge-solar-flares-could-impact-weather-on-earth\/#\"><span style=\"color: blue;\">satellites<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPower grid operators have all been alerted, as well as the regulatory agencies that all pay attention to this,\u201d Kunches said.<\/p>\n<p>GPS users will also be affected because of the highly charged atmosphere; it\u2019s very possible that certain types of applications will be interrupted, specifically highly precise calculations and the high-frequency communications that airplanes rely upon.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, some polar flights have already been affected, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome have already taken action to reroute to ensure their [high-frequency communication],\u201d Kunches said.<\/p>\n<p>Solar radiation storms could reach as high as S4, he noted, which could cause astronauts on the International Space Station to seek shelter from the heightened radiation levels associated with such a storm.<\/p>\n<p>These effects should last about 24 hours, probably lingering overnight into the early morning hours on Friday, pending another eruption &#8212; \u201cand we think there will be more coming,\u201d Kunches said.<\/p>\n<p>The upside? Some areas may experience a wonderful display of the Northern Lights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the treat that we get when the sun erupts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Read more:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/scitech\/2012\/03\/07\/sun-fires-off-2-huge-solar-flares-could-impact-weather-on-earth\/#ixzz1oWYBLXqN\">http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/scitech\/2012\/03\/07\/sun-fires-off-2-huge-solar-flares-could-impact-weather-on-earth\/#ixzz1oWYBLXqN<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A massive solar storm is due to arrive at Earth early Thursday, and is expected to shake the globe&#8217;s magnetic field while expanding the Northern Lights. A giant blast of plasma spat from the sun at as much as 4 million miles per hour Tuesday &#8212; by some measures the largest solar event since late &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/?p=2992\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">SOLAR FLARE, DON&#8217;T TRUST YOUR GPS TODAY<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[309],"tags":[1212,2563,1211,1210],"class_list":["post-2992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weather","tag-cme","tag-gps","tag-plasma","tag-solar-flare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2992"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2993,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2992\/revisions\/2993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}