Massive Solar Storm

[taufupok]

Yahoo news :




WASHINGTON (AFP) - A potent solar flare (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_flare) has unleashed the biggest radiation storm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_storm) since 2005 and could disrupt some satellite communications in the polar regions, US space weather monitors said Monday.
The event started late Sunday with a moderate-sized solar flare (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_flare) that erupted right near the center of the Sun, said Doug Biesecker, a physicist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Space Weather Prediction Center (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Weather_Prediction_Center).
"The flare itself was nothing spectacular, but it sent off a very fast coronal mass ejection traveling four million miles per hour (6.4 million kilometers per hour)," he told AFP.
A rush of radiation in the form of solar protons already has begun bombarding the Earth and is likely to continue through Wednesday.
The radiation storm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_storm) is the largest of its kind since 2005 but still ranks only a three on the scale of one to five, enough to be considered "strong" but not "severe," he added.
NOAA said its website the S3 ranking means "it could, e.g., cause isolated reboots of computers onboard Earth-orbiting satellites and interfere with polar radio communications."
Biesecker said that when it comes to radiation storms, the polar regions are affected most.
For instance, the storm could spell disruptions to airline flights, oil operations, Arctic exploration and space satellites.
Night-sky viewers in Asia and Europe may be able to witness the aurora, or Northern Lights, late Tuesday as a result of the storm.
"We don't expect major impacts from an event like this," Biesecker said.
"It's the people who need GPS (global positioning system) accuracy of centimeters who have to worry, not people who want to know if you're going to turn the car 30 meters (100 feet) ahead."





1) How are flights o the polar routes going to cope or deal with this
if the solar discharge takes only about 8 minutes to reach the earth's
atmosphere?

2) How are PRNAV requirements going to be affected with GPS based FMC
systems?

3)Any known diversions by flights on polar routes due to sudden adverse
changes in space weather?

[Intruder]

With the combination of GPS and IRU, an FMS can be accurate for a long time without GPS updates, once a good initial alignment is obtained. The 744 is not limited if DME updating is available, and limited to 12 hours without GPS or DME updating.

[b737NGyyc]

There was a pretty impressive display of Northern Lights as far south as the 49th parallel last night from about 90W to the Rockies. I was wondering what was causing such a display so far south.

[cribble]

If I were younger I would be more worried about high-energy protons pinging bits of my chromasomes than "bit-flips" in computers causing temporary errors.

If your airline isn't monitoring solar radiation there is an email advisory sent out by NOAA in the US. There is also some excellent educational info on their website.:8

[Checkboard]

1) How are flights o the polar routes going to cope or deal with this
if the solar discharge takes only about 8 minutes to reach the earth's
atmosphere?

Light takes 8 minutes, travelling at the speed of. Protons, having mass, wander along at a lower speed. The gap between the two gives you your detection to hazard time - which is usually two or more hours.
Solar flare - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_flare#Hazards)

http://www.spacew.com/www/northoval.gif

The radiation hazard to polar aviation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_storm#Radiation_hazards_to_humans) isn't required to be monitored for crew, but most airlines run regular programs to check for crew radiation. My airline tracks radiation exposure through their rostering system, and the roster each month has a dosage prediction at the bottom (which is always well below limits). Having said that, the prediction runs on average not real time, data.

A study by Mertens of polar flights during a solar storm in 2003 showed that passengers received about 12 percent of the annual radiation limit recommended by the International Committee on Radiological Protection. The exposures were greater than on typical flights at lower latitudes, and confirmed concerns about commercial flights using polar routes.

While the flights studied appear to have not put passengers in danger of exceeding the safe radiation limit on an individual flight, concerns remain, Mertens said. Many workers whose jobs expose them to consistent radiation sources log that exposure to keep a record over one's career. This is not the case for commercial aircrew, which receive the highest radiation levels of any occupationally exposed group.

People who work on commercial airline flights are technically listed as "radiation workers" by the federal government – a classification that includes nuclear plant workers and X-ray technicians. But unlike some others in that category, flight crews do not quantify the radiation they are exposed to.NASA - Thousand-fold Rise in Polar Flights Hikes Radiation Risk (http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/science/polar-radiation.html)

If you want a bit more information, my previous airline's company doctor produced the following paper on crew radiation exposure (admittedly for Australian conditions), and the limits:

http://www.pprune.org/pub/gen/radiation.htm

[Kilda Ste Hilda]

Light takes 8 minutes, travelling at the speed of. Protons, having mass, wander along at a lower speed

I am no expert but a solar coronal discharge involves not only protons but other harmful radiation in the electromagnetic spectrum which may approximate the speed of light...and if recent findings are to be believed, there are electromagnetic radiation which can exceed the speed of light.:confused:

[Deaf]

if recent findings are to be believed, there are electromagnetic radiation which can exceed the speed of light

IIRC these were neutrinos. They will affect people on the equator at midnight just as much as people at altitude in polar daylight ie not at all. Difficult to detect or be damaged by them because you have to stop them to detect them or be damaged by them and most of them will go though most things including a light year of lead.