Waiting for the Sun to Erupt. (It's OK, We Get a 30-Minute Warning)
By Stephanie Stoughton Jun 20, 2014 12:00 AM ET
Mama always told me not to look into the sights of the sun. Oh, but Mama, thats where the fun is.
No one understands that Bruce Springsteen song more than William Murtagh. In a small government office near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Murtagh and other federal employees monitor the sun 24 hours a day, waiting for it to erupt and fling a cloud of superheated, supercharged gas toward Earth.
The Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado, sends alerts to power grids, airlines, oil drillers and even pigeon trainers on the risks of geomagnetic storms that can disrupt communications, electric power, and, yes, perhaps the birds sense of direction.
The center also may provide the first clue to the worst-case scenario described in academic and government reports: widespread power outages, food shortages and trillions of dollars in economic damages. The reinsurance industry is increasingly sounding alarms, calling space weather a potential hazard in todays wired world.
While the U.S. has taken steps to prepare for a mega-storm from space, the center is often able to provide only an estimated 30-minute warning of geomagnetic disruptions. The government spends less than $10 million on the facility, which must fight annually for funding within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The little office relies on data from aging satellites it doesnt control and that need to be replaced.
more...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-20/why-springsteen-had-a-point-about-staring-into-the-sun.html
airplaneman
(1,240 posts)We have 2-3 days depending on the solar wind speed before it gets to Earth (not 30 minutes).
The event is called a Coronal Mass Ejection.
Here is a good link to a sun monitoring website.
http://www.ipellejero.es/hf/english/index.html
-Airplane
Purveyor
(29,876 posts)packman
(16,296 posts)Two/three days , hell, that would give me time to run up those credit cards.
mainer
(12,029 posts)When I was in Iceland, we always checked for Coronal events, hoping there'd be activity in a few days.
Hestia
(3,818 posts)Sorry, couldn't let it go
From Wikipedia: "Blinded by the Light" is a song written and originally recorded by Bruce Springsteen, although it is mostly known by its 1976 #1 hit version recorded by Manfred Mann.
Hestia
(3,818 posts)Personal Damon
(64 posts)Cal33
(7,018 posts)light does.
A hearty welcome to DU.
Personal Damon
(64 posts)Both for the welcome and the clarification