Photo NASA: Sun, last Feb. 13.
http://www.abc.es/20110221/ciencia/abci-cientificos-tormenta-solar-201102210720.html
The phenomenon has the power to stop , at one stroke, with the technology of the modern world.
José Manuel Nieves / Madrid
02/2011
Experts are, this time, all agreed. As a geomagnetic storm that occurred on Earth on Tuesday is not an isolated phenomenon. And despite that we hit last week, so far the most powerful of the current solar cycle, had no major consequences in future cases might not be so lucky. A similar phenomenon, in fact, has the power to finish, one stroke, with the modern world's technological society.
A solar storm enough strong, in fact, could destabilize, even catastrophically, much of our technology. The modern world, many experts said on Saturday during the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), rely heavily on the satellite network. Shipping and air transport, synchronization between computers, telecommunications networks, GPS systems, electronics of all kinds ... Technologies, all of them extremely vulnerable to "change time" space.
The consequences would be disastrous if a large solar storm, for the network of satellites orbiting Earth many of which would be literally "scorched" but also for power plants worldwide, which sit idle transformers causing power cuts of electricity that could last weeks or even months.
Waiting for the big storm
The storm of last Tuesday is the beginning of a situation which, according to scientists, can only get worse. In fact, we are hardly at the beginning of the current solar cycle is expected that the activity of the sun is going increasingly intense over the next eleven years.
"It's not a question of whether it will - said Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States, but when it will happen and how strong will. The last time we had a maximum in the solar cycle, about ten years ago, the world was a very different place. Today mobile phones are everywhere. It is also true that before had, but it depended on them for so many different things. "
For this expert, "many of the things we take for granted and now rely much guaranteed over space weather during the last solar maximum. "Despite the risk, experts admit that, at present, very little can be done to predict potentially dangerous solar storms. What we should do is to" shield "in some form networks and power plants, doing something that allows us, in case of alarm, quickly extinguish the most sensitive areas until the danger passes.
"The problem is the reliance on GPS »
" Please do not panic - said by Meanwhile Stephan Lechner, Director of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission - overacting would only worsen the situation. "For this expert, the root of the modern world's vulnerability is its dependence on global positioning systems or GPS without which it would not be possible sea and air, and the synchronization of computer networks and electronic equipment.
"GPS has helped us on Saturday," said Lechner, but we also created a new unit "ranging from aerospace to digital production of radio and TV, financial services and government agencies. In Europe alone, he said, there are 200 telecommunications operators and "none of them are standardized."
impossible to prevent
Given the current inability to prevent a solar storm capable of causing the disaster, the world's governments should develop strategies for cooperation enable them to share all your vital information, thus anticipating the local damage that storm could cause. Unfortunately, despite the current deployment of resources, we still do not know when devastating storm that could occur.
"Currently, for his part said Juha-Pekka Luntama, European Space Agency, we can not say whether there will be a big storm in the next six months, but we can say that all the conditions for that storm occurs. "
On Tuesday, a large solar flare, the most detected in the last five years, sent to Earth a huge stream of charged plasma particles at a speed of 900 km per second. The eruption was in class X, the most powerful of which is capable of Sun, produced some spectacular auroras and destabilized communications, but its effects are almost exclusively confined to latitudes north of our planet.
"You would think - Luntama said," that this time we were well protected. It turns out that magnetic fields were aligned in parallel, so it was not too much. If it were not so, things would have been very different " .
The phenomenon has the power to stop , at one stroke, with the technology of the modern world.
José Manuel Nieves / Madrid
02/2011
Experts are, this time, all agreed. As a geomagnetic storm that occurred on Earth on Tuesday is not an isolated phenomenon. And despite that we hit last week, so far the most powerful of the current solar cycle, had no major consequences in future cases might not be so lucky. A similar phenomenon, in fact, has the power to finish, one stroke, with the modern world's technological society.
A solar storm enough strong, in fact, could destabilize, even catastrophically, much of our technology. The modern world, many experts said on Saturday during the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), rely heavily on the satellite network. Shipping and air transport, synchronization between computers, telecommunications networks, GPS systems, electronics of all kinds ... Technologies, all of them extremely vulnerable to "change time" space.
The consequences would be disastrous if a large solar storm, for the network of satellites orbiting Earth many of which would be literally "scorched" but also for power plants worldwide, which sit idle transformers causing power cuts of electricity that could last weeks or even months.
Waiting for the big storm
The storm of last Tuesday is the beginning of a situation which, according to scientists, can only get worse. In fact, we are hardly at the beginning of the current solar cycle is expected that the activity of the sun is going increasingly intense over the next eleven years.
"It's not a question of whether it will - said Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States, but when it will happen and how strong will. The last time we had a maximum in the solar cycle, about ten years ago, the world was a very different place. Today mobile phones are everywhere. It is also true that before had, but it depended on them for so many different things. "
For this expert, "many of the things we take for granted and now rely much guaranteed over space weather during the last solar maximum. "Despite the risk, experts admit that, at present, very little can be done to predict potentially dangerous solar storms. What we should do is to" shield "in some form networks and power plants, doing something that allows us, in case of alarm, quickly extinguish the most sensitive areas until the danger passes.
"The problem is the reliance on GPS »
" Please do not panic - said by Meanwhile Stephan Lechner, Director of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission - overacting would only worsen the situation. "For this expert, the root of the modern world's vulnerability is its dependence on global positioning systems or GPS without which it would not be possible sea and air, and the synchronization of computer networks and electronic equipment.
"GPS has helped us on Saturday," said Lechner, but we also created a new unit "ranging from aerospace to digital production of radio and TV, financial services and government agencies. In Europe alone, he said, there are 200 telecommunications operators and "none of them are standardized."
impossible to prevent
Given the current inability to prevent a solar storm capable of causing the disaster, the world's governments should develop strategies for cooperation enable them to share all your vital information, thus anticipating the local damage that storm could cause. Unfortunately, despite the current deployment of resources, we still do not know when devastating storm that could occur.
"Currently, for his part said Juha-Pekka Luntama, European Space Agency, we can not say whether there will be a big storm in the next six months, but we can say that all the conditions for that storm occurs. "
On Tuesday, a large solar flare, the most detected in the last five years, sent to Earth a huge stream of charged plasma particles at a speed of 900 km per second. The eruption was in class X, the most powerful of which is capable of Sun, produced some spectacular auroras and destabilized communications, but its effects are almost exclusively confined to latitudes north of our planet.
"You would think - Luntama said," that this time we were well protected. It turns out that magnetic fields were aligned in parallel, so it was not too much. If it were not so, things would have been very different " .
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