back to article NASA warns as huge solar flare threatens comms, maybe astronauts too

NASA has warned of strong solar flares that have the potential to interrupt communications in space and down here on Earth. The aerospace agency on Thursday posted news of a flare that peaked at 5:34 p.m. EST on Feb. 22, 2024 (10:34PM UTC) that it’s rated an X6.3 event. Solar flares are rated in five categories: A, B, C, M, …

  1. phils

    AT&T management

    Wondering if they can pin their issues on the sun.

    1. b0llchit Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: AT&T management

      I do not think any sunlight can penetrate management levels.

  2. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    WTF?

    A, B, C, . . M ?

    What is the rationale, here ? Does M stand for Massive ?

    Sometimes astronomy has the weirdest rules.

    1. Andy The Hat Silver badge

      Re: A, B, C, . . M ?

      Easy,

      Average flare

      Big flare

      Considerable flare

      Massive flare

      eXtreme flare

      1. vekkq

        Re: A, B, C, . . M ?

        Missed opportunity to just go ABCDE, with D for dense flare.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A, B, C, . . M ?

      It's just to avoid conflicting with other class systems related to optics.

  3. Magani
    Coat

    A sunny outlook

    What's this solar thing? I always thought flares were what Kiwis grew in their gardens.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: A sunny outlook

      I thought flares were those things the cops put along roads to guide traffic around accidents. Or maybe certain types of pants?

  4. Graham Cobb

    Too late?

    I am confused. What good is a "warning"? Surely by the time solar scientists have observed the flare (let alone communicated to anyone about it) its effects have reached us?

    Does it have significant duration? Does its strength increase (in which case, how do they know how strong it will be)? Is the warning about matter ejected at the same time but travelling a lot lower than the speed of light?

    1. Richard Tobin

      Re: Too late?

      Solar flares have both immediate and delayed effects on the earth. X-rays travel at the speed of light and can cause radio blackouts and also affect satellites in various ways. X-rays may remain at high levels for several hours - in this case the level was above M1 for about an hour and a half. Flares are often also accompanied by "coronal mass ejections" which can cause geomagnetic storms a couple of days later. There doesn't seem to have been a significant CME associated with this flare.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Too late?

      We have observatories much closer to the sun. The flares only travel at about 500km/s so we do get some warning.

      1. pdh

        Re: Too late?

        Flares travel at the speed of light, don't they? That 500 km/sec number sounds more like CME speed.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Too late?

          Yep, mixed them up. We do still get at least several hours of warning before a flare eruption though, because we actively monitor likely regions of build up in the magnetic field. It just becomes a matter of probability risk.

        2. very angry man

          Re: Too late?

          Don't know why you are interested in a UK based expert, been to the UK you can't see the sun from there!

          You need a Australian expert, All you need is a hat and sunscreen SPF 2000 should do it

  5. Paul Cooper

    I note that none of the ones in the list come close to the Carrington Event (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event)

    1. Jellied Eel Silver badge

      I note that none of the ones in the list come close to the Carrington Event (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event)

      I've still never understood aspects of that one, even after getting my copy of Plasma Physics for Astrophysicists. Mainly why it seemed to arrive so quickly. Think for a while wiki just said something like 'It jumped', which isn't a common characteristic of plasmas as I understand them. So my best guess is maybe ionisation created a charged path that enabled it to move faster. Is fascinating physics though, like plasma loops kind of cracking the whip and ended up accelerated in our general direction.

      1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

        There's not much to ionize between the sun and the earth.

        1. Jellied Eel Silver badge

          There's not much to ionize between the sun and the earth.

          Yep, that's why I don't get how it could be any faster than normal.

  6. M.V. Lipvig Silver badge
    Trollface

    Does anyone else see the icon in the picture?

    You do now, and you can't unsee it!

    YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

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