Skip to main content

Coronal Mass Ejection might disrupt communications


On Thursday, April 11, the sun let off an M6.5 solar flare and its accompanying coronal mass ejection, more commonly called a CME, which is directed at Earth. The solar particles that result from such an event are traveling at a speed of about 600 miles per second, and are expected to reach Earth Friday night into the weekend. Such an event disrupted some radio communications.
Before you begin imaging a scenario similar to certain end-of-times movies where characters go from innocently watching television to being shrouded in darkness and chaos, keep in mind this event will be far less eventful, possibly disrupting radios and GPS starting Friday night. Because the event was observed, some preparations can be made in anticipation of the incoming solar particles, helping protect satellites and other vulnerable equipment from damage.

A CME that is Earth-bound, according to NASA, can result in a geomagnetic storm as it colides with the magnetosphere. In addition, this particular event caused what is reported as a weak solar energetic particle event close to our planet, which results when charged particles are thrust towards Earth. Harmful radiation can result from such an event, but is of no concern to us because it is blocked by the atmosphere.

Says NASA, an M-class solar flare is ten times weaker than an X-class solar flare, and is the weakest flare still capable of creating solar storms near our planet. The result from this particular event was an R2 radio blackout, which is low on a scale that ranges from R1 to R5. Still, this is the strongest solar flare that has happened this year, and is ahead of anticipated increased activity later this year. This is the result of the sun’s 11-year activity cycle approaching solar maximum in the ebb and flow of things.

Via - SlashGear/Nasa

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

iPad (2022) and iPad Pro with M2 announced

Apple has announced their latest iteration of the iPad (entry level model) and the iPad Pro lineup with the new M2 processor. The event, held on the 18th of October as a recorded session displayed the key features of the iPads with the most significant being the base model iPad which has now received an upgrade. iPad 2022 This model of the base model iPad ditches the almost 12 year old home button and display layout and goes for a cleaner display only design found on the iPad Air . The chassis, which now comes with flatter sides and a TouchID fingerprint sensor on the top has also abandoned the lightning port in favor of USB C and it also comes with a set of pogo style connectors for accessories including a keyboard with trackpad.  Internally, the iPad comes either as a Wifi only (Wifi6) and a 5G cellular model and is offered with 64 or 256GB of storage. The processor has also been upgraded to the Apple A14 which is the same found on the iPhone 12 series and last year's iPad Air. L

HTC One to sell as TD 101 at China Mobile

HTC decided to invest in such a brand by launching the One series of smartphones last year, although the company was not able to impose its own product names to certain carriers. Then, just a few days ago, the company launched the HTC One, which is going to be the company’s only One-branded handset this year, a make-or-break kind of project for the Taiwanese Android maker that’s still having a tough time fighting against the competition, especially Samsung. We were under the impression that HTC will further invest in its One brand and not budge to carrier demands anymore when it comes to changing the name of the product – in the U.S., AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile are going to sell it as the HTC One. But it looks like things aren’t necessarily so, and no, it’s not Verizon that’s going to get its way selling the One as the Droid DNA Plus, as it was recently rumored. We’re looking at China Mobile this time around, which has announced the HTC One as the HTC TD 101. That’s certa

Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 pro along with Pixel watch unveiled.

  Google announced their latest Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro smartphones along with the Pixel Watch - google's first wearable at a special launch event today. The devices, which are powered by Google's second generation Tensor SOC bring major improvements in photography which has always been Google's highlight. Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. Google's Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro are Google's latest flagship phones for 2022. The devices, which have been developed around the Tensor G2 - Google's second generation processor developed on a 4nm architecture. The chipset, which consists of 2 Cortex X1 cores, 2 Cortex A78 cores and 4 Cortex A55 cores with a Mali G710 MC10 GPU cores and the chip is paired with 8GB of RAM for the Pixel 7 and 12GB RAM for the Pro variant. Both models come with 128 / 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage and the pro model comes with 512GB. The phones, which come with two different display sizes consist of a 6.3" 2400x1080 AMOLED display with 90Hz refre