Interesting stuff. What I'd love to actually experience is the sun spots. I don't have the equipment to talk on those frequencies effected, but maybe one day.
The solar flare I think I remember a bit of in 1989. That was also the year of the big earth quake in california, october 17 1989. Hmm interesting stuff. Tc and 73 from a very tired but still awake KE7ZUM On Mar 14, 2014, at 2:12 PM, Martin G. McCormick <[email protected]> wrote: > I get a bulletin each week of radio propagation-related news > from the American Radio Relay League which is an amateur radio > organization. This week's newsletter remembered a very large > Solar flare which happened in March of 1989. The flare caused > auroras in many places that never normally see them and a number > of other weird things that let us know that our nearest star can > kick up some dust when conditions get right. > The Sun is encased in an atmosphere which normally holds > in most of what makes up the Sun but can behave like a garbage > bag or flour sack that has sprung leaks. The stuff inside which > is mostly subatomic particles spews out of the holes and blows > off in to space. It is called the Solar Wind and sometimes these > streams face toward the Earth and that's when the fun starts. > > We humans and other living things on Earth aren't > bothered directly by these blasts of Sun goo, but they interact > with the Earth's magnetic field making it sometimes stronger and > other times weaker within the space of a few seconds or minutes. > It's these times when the auroras begin to glow in all the > colors of the rainbow due to electrically charged particles of > the very thin air about 60 miles above the Earth. > > Radio signals that depend on the ionosphere get > clobbered and one can forget listening to the usual stations > because nature is not cooperating in reflecting the signals as > she usually does. > > There's even more weird stuff during a big Solar flare. > Electric wires, pipelines and any other very long pieces > of metal begin to behave like giant generators, producing > electric currents along their lengths. This actually can damage > communications and power systems because the foreign currents > and voltages are sufficient to burn out electrical devices not > meant to handle such stresses. It is like a slow-motion > lightning strike. In 1989, the city of Montrialle had power > failures caused by the flare. > In the North Sea, they had to stop oil field activity > for a day because magnetic compasses were reading as much as 5 > degrees off and the error was variable from second to second so > nobody could trust the readings and ships could go off course > and collide. > > We also can loose communications satellites as they get > sprayed with the particles that are actually sped up as they get > caught in the Earth's magnetic field so these events do cause a > lot of expensive disruption when they happen. > Fortunately, they don't happen without warning. > Astronomers see the flares on the Sun about 8 minutes after they > occur. That is how long light takes to reach Earth from the Sun. > The subatomic particles are actually solid mass all be > it very tiny pieces so they travel a little slower than light > and reach us between 12 and 36 hours later so we have that much > warning to turn off critical systems so they don't get fried. > > There was the mother of all Solar flares in September of > 1859 which would have done very substantial damage to our world > if we had had much in the way of electronics then, but the > telegraph networks in developed parts of the world were all that > existed then and they were disrupted somewhat during a week or > so of Solar fireworks. > > The chances of having some kind of event like that are to > put it mildly, slim. Yes, it could happen, but I don't want to > scare anybody. As far as we know, we've never had anything like > the flare of 1859 in recorded human history except for that one > week. Auroras were visible almost all over the Earth and there > would have been accounts of that even centuries ago although > people wouldn't have understood what was happening. > > I know people who actually worry about such things. > There are plenty of things to worry about in life and big Solar > flares are somewhere in the realm of possibility similar to > stumbling over a gold bar with my name engraved on it while > walking home today. > > Martin > > ======================================= > > The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus > and worm-free > > To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web > pages located at > http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat > > You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group at > either of the following websites: > > http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html > > Or: > <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> > you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. 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