Christmas solar storm to batter Earth

[guohua]

OK, Friends, it's starting!

SPACE WEATHER WARNING
Christmas solar storm to batter Earth as flare blasts from massive hole in the sun
A solar flare is heading our way and it's threatening to wreak havoc with modern life on our planet

Get you Battery Back-Ups ready. Put Gas in your Generators and turn off your cell phones.

EARTH is being blasted by a flare soaring from a hole in the sun’s atmosphere – and it’s bringing huge geomagnetic storms with it.

The super-fast stream of solar wind hit the Earth’s magnetic field just in time for the winter solstice on Wednesday

And it’s whipped up a “moderately” strong geomagnetic storm that could last for several days, according to the US’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Geomagnetic storms are behind the awe-inspiring natural phenomenon the Northern Lights.
But they can prove devastating to human civilisation as we know it, experts have warned.

 Yes My Friends, Doom and Gloom!

SPACE agency footage filmed by Solar Dynamics Observatory shows a bright, strobe-like flash on the right of the Sun

A massive flare explodes out of the sun in an incredible NASA picture.

They wreak havoc on navigation systems and cause entire national power grids to grind to a halt.
US president Barack Obama was forced to issue a chilling warning to the nation in preparation for devastating space weather storms earlier this year.
He said: "Extreme space weather events - those that could significantly degrade critical infrastructure - could disable large portions of the electrical power grid, resulting in cascading failures that would affect key services such as water supply, healthcare, and transportation.
"Space weather has the potential to simultaneously affect and disrupt health and safety across entire continents."
In this case, the space weather prediction centre has warned that “minor fluctuations” may occur in several US state’s power supplies.
Today’s storm is "broad" and Earth is expected to remain inside it for several days.
It’s good news for Aurora watchers, as the long nights mean more time to watch the incredible plumes of colour across the northern hemisphere.

Source

[Mystic Wanderer]

Is this why my computer has been sitting here spinning it's wheels, but not going anywhere?

I've had to reboot several times lately, now I have an idea why.   

I've had my supplies ready and waiting for months, so bring it on!  

[guohua]

Is this why my computer has been sitting here spinning it's wheels, but not going anywhere?

I've had to reboot several times lately, now I have an idea why.   

I've had my supplies ready and waiting for months, so bring it on!  

Go to the lower right corner of your screen and click on your Internet Connection Tab or Icon and tell it to reconnect or just connect and that'll help.
That seems to re-establish the connection, also have you used those free computer clean-up links I sent to you?

[senona]

Let's just hope and pray that we never experience what they did in 1859, known as the Carrington Event.

The flares were so powerful that "people in the northeastern U.S. could read newspaper print just from the light of the aurora," Daniel Baker, of the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, said at a geophysics meeting last December.
In addition, the geomagnetic disturbances were strong enough that U.S. telegraph operators reported sparks leaping from their equipment—some bad enough to set fires, said Ed Cliver, a space physicist at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory in Bedford, Massachusetts.

In 1859, such reports were mostly curiosities. But if something similar happened today, the world's high-tech infrastructure could grind to a halt.




"What's at stake," the Space Weather Prediction Center's Bogdan said, "are the advanced technologies that underlie virtually every aspect of our lives."

If people panic when their smartphone does not work for a day, can you imagine the chaos of a power grid or 2 being taken down during a solar flare?
Sheesh almighty, that is one scenario I would not want to see.

Especially if it affected hospitals, banks, emergency agencies etc etc.



Obama did pass in Oct. an Executive Order for such scenario.


Hopefully nothing like that will ever occur, but if it does, at least maybe our govt will be prepared to act on it and calm the public before panic ensues.

[Mystic Wanderer]

Is this why my computer has been sitting here spinning it's wheels, but not going anywhere?

I've had to reboot several times lately, now I have an idea why.   

I've had my supplies ready and waiting for months, so bring it on!  

Go to the lower right corner of your screen and click on your Internet Connection Tab or Icon and tell it to reconnect or just connect and that'll help.
That seems to re-establish the connection, also have you used those free computer clean-up links I sent to you?

Yes, I have one on my computer, and I checked to see if I needed to defrag last week, but it was okay. 
If not the solar flares, maybe just the cold.   It's been rather chilly here lately; in mid and low twenties at night.