The Sun Just Erupted: Blackouts Reported After Huge Solar Flare

The sun just released a massive solar flare. In fact, this is the largest solar flare emitted in the past decade, and the earth has already been affected by blackouts.

NASA has reported a huge solar flare was emitted by the Sun and it is the most powerful one since 2006.  This solar flare has already caused some radio blackouts on Earth and it may cause aurora visible as far south as London.  On the morning of September 6, scientists watched as two X-flares were unleashed by the sun.

The stronger flare was the second of the two emitted by the Sun yesterday morning and it was seen by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). At 5:10 AM EDT, the Sun unleashed an X2.2 flare, with X-class denoting the most intense flares. Then, at 8:02 AM EDT, a much bigger flare measuring X9.3 was unleashed. By comparison, the last time we saw a flare this big was in 2006, which measured at X9.0. The number shows the intensity, with X2 being twice as intense as X1, X3 three times as intense, and so on.

The loops of plasma emitted during these two flares were ten times the size of planet Earth. Scientists got to watch the massive coronal mass ejection from these flares, which can be seen below in the gif provided.

According to NASA, the flares were emitted from an active region of the Sun known as AR 2673. This region also emitted a mid-level flare on September 4, 2017. But scientists say the timing of these big flares is rather odd as the Sun is currently heading towards the quieter period of its 11-year solar cycle known as solar minimum. This cycle began in 2008, with solar minimum expected in the next couple of years.

“This is a phase when such eruptions on the Sun are increasingly rare, but history has shown that they can nonetheless be intense,” said NASA. And this one had some effects on life on Earth.  It knocked out the high-frequency radio, according to the NOAA, and degraded low-frequency navigation. But the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) said it was expecting some radio blackouts yesterday, and the high-frequency radio was expected to drop out for an hour.

The particles from the CME (coronal mass ejection) can also cause aurora activity further south than normal as they interact with Earth’s magnetosphere.

*The map above shows how far south the aurora will be visible thanks to these solar flares.  If interested, watch the skies for the show.

Scientists aren’t sure yet if the CME was directed towards Earth. If it does come our way, it could cause a strong geomagnetic storm that will further hamper communications.

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Author: Mac Slavo
Views: Read by 339 people
Date: September 7th, 2017
Website: www.SHTFplan.com

Copyright Information: Copyright SHTFplan and Mac Slavo. This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.shtfplan.com. Please contact us for permission to reproduce this content in other media formats.

The 75,000 Mile Wide Hole In The Sun Could Black Out Earth’s Communications

The sunspot spotted by NASA as our sun creeps toward its solar minimum is 75,000 miles wide.  That has huge implications for our satellites and communications systems, and the sunspot could cause some blackouts on Earth.

The huge sunspot has the potential to send out dangerous solar flares known to take out important communication equipment, satellites, and even huge sections of the power grid. This sunspot is the first to appear after the sun was spotless for 2 days and the dark core is larger than the Earth.

A 75,000-mile wide sunspot just appeared.

Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory first detected the huge spot last week, and it appears to have lingered through to this week.

Sunspots are darker, cooler areas on the surface of the sun, caused by interactions with the sun’s magnetic field. They tend to appear in regions of intense magnetic activity, and when that energy is released, solar flares and huge storms erupt from sunspots. Such a storm could create stunning auroras around the world, as well as play havoc with power grids, potentially causing blackouts in some areas. –DailyMail

NASA released a statement about the newly visible sunspot.  “A new sunspot group has rotated into view and seems to be growing rather quickly,” they said. “It is the first sunspot to appear after the sun was spotless for two days, and it is the only sunspot group on the sun at this moment.”

Watch the video below to see the sunspot rotate into view.

“It could be the source for some solar flares, but it is too early to predict just what it will do,” NASA continued.  Forecasters from the NOAA say that there is a 25 percent chance of M-class flares today because the sunspot is directly facing our planet.

Solar flares occur when a buildup of magnetic energy on the sun is suddenly released. They usually erupt from sunspots, temporary dark, and relatively cool patches on our star’s surface where the local magnetic field is very strong.  They are broken down into three classes, C, M, or X for strong flares, and A or B for weaker flares.

There’s a tenfold increase in power from one class to the next, so an X flare is 10 times stronger than an M flare, and 100 times more powerful than a C. There’s also a finer gradation within each class, from 1 to 9 in the case of C and M flares. But the number goes higher for X flares, because they’re at the top of the scale and the sun occasionally fires off eruptions more than 10 times stronger than an X1. For example, in 2003, the sun let loose a flare that registered as an X28 before overwhelming the sensors that measured it. It remains the most powerful solar flare ever recorded. –Space

M-class eruptions, which experts say could result from this sunspot, can generate brief radio blackouts at the poles and minor radiation storms that could endanger orbiting astronauts. X-class flares, on the other hand, can have consequences on a planet-wide scale, triggering widespread radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms.

The CMEs (coronal mass ejections) that often accompany solar flares have even more destructive potential. When a CME’s charged particles interact with Earth’s magnetic field, they can spawn geomagnetic storms powerful enough to disrupt GPS signals, radio communications, and power grids.

Although this sunspot doesn’t appear to present any major danger just yet, the sun’s approaching solar minimum too, and it’s likely to continue to be a bumpy ride until its cycle ends. As always, things could change quickly when speaking of the unpredictability of the sun.

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Author: Mac Slavo
Views: Read by 320 people
Date: July 13th, 2017
Website: www.SHTFplan.com

Copyright Information: Copyright SHTFplan and Mac Slavo. This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.shtfplan.com. Please contact us for permission to reproduce this content in other media formats.

U.S. Power Companies Warned ‘Nightmare’ Cyber Weapon Already Causing Blackouts

By: Kevin Poulsen, The Daily Beast | 

Technicians responded to the Pivnichna substation and took the circuit breakers off computer control, restoring power a little after 1 a.m. It was only the second confirmed case of a computer attack triggering an electrical blackout, and compared to the first, 12 months earlier—also in Ukraine—it was a fizzle, affecting far fewer customers and for a fraction of the time. In the six months since the Kiev attack, security researchers have wondered why the hackers even bothered with such a fleeting disruption and speculated that someone was using Ukraine as a testing ground for a more serious attack.

Now that dark assessment seems to be confirmed. Researchers at two security companies on Monday announced they’ve finally found and analyzed the malware that triggered the Kiev blackout, and it’s far worse than imagined. The computer code, dubbed “CrashOverride” by Maryland-based Dragos, and “Industroyer” by ESET in Slovakia, is a genuine cyber weapon that can map out a power station’s control network and, with minimal human guidance, issue malicious commands directly to critical equipment. Only once before has the world seen malware designed for such sabotage, with the 2010 Stuxnet virus used against Iran’s nuclear program. CrashOverride is the first to target civilians and the first such malware built to target a nation’s power supply.

It’s unclear who created CrashOverrride. Both ESET and Dragos say it was built from scratch, leaving none of the usual fingerprints that allow analysts to link one hacking campaign to another. Ukraine has faced a near-biblical plague of cyberattacks since entering into hostilities with Russia three years ago, and many have led unequivocally to Moscow. But not so with CrashOverride.

The only thing that’s certain, says security researcher Robert Lee, CEO of Dragos, is that the malware wasn’t built as a one-time weapon. It’s designed from the ground up to be easily reconfigured for a variety of targets and contains some payloads that weren’t even fired off in the Kiev attack.

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