After a much desired vacation, well rested and ready for business, our Sun is back to work and the next couple of years may be very exciting ones here on earth.
In a statement from NASA dated June 4 th 2010 from a meeting held in Washington DC:
“The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity. At the same time, our technological society has developed an unprecedented sensitivity to solar storms. The intersection of these two issues is what we’re getting together to discuss.”
The consensus of the attendees of this meeting was that the economic damage from solar storms could be 20 times the damage done by Hurricane Katrina. CME (Massive Coronal Mass Ejection or Solar Eruption) striking the earth will knock out many, if not all, the high tech systems that we have come to rely on.
Some of these systems would include the satellites, that are responsible for communication and GPS ( Global Positioning System), financial systems around the world that rely on computers, electrical grids could be shut down. Society would be plunged back in time a hundred years.
In order to prepare for a solar flare or storm the government relies the expertise of two agencies, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has been tasked with the responsibility of monitoring space weather, with the aid of NASA spacecraft. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maintains the Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder Colo. What is really interesting is NOAA’s websites where you can check for updates on space weather,the Space Weather Advisories- Advisory Outlooks website and Space Weather Now site .
It is not usually my habit of injecting my opinion into articles. I prefer to report facts regarding innovations in the field of alternative energy; however recent discussions and current events have forced me to revise that position.
This small spaceship which we call Earth is danger, not from a foreign invader, but from actions of man. The very thing that makes this planet different from those that are uninhabited is the presence of water. Opponents of drilling in the oceans have warned that an “accident” would occur and it would seem that they were correct. Now we are facing a disaster. A disaster of a scale that many have not yet fully come to terms with.
Oil is escaping at a rate that has been underreported. Estimates change each time more information is received from surveys conducted at the scene of the leak. It was recently reported that the equivalent of an Exxon Valdes spill is being released into the Gulf of Mexico every four days.
The environmental impact of this is staggering. Reports are coming in of the mounting death toll to sea turtles, dolphins and other aquatic life. Chemicals being used to dissolve the oil are reported to be hazardous to ocean dwelling creatures, adding to the number killed.
As the oil comes ashore, coastal habitats, that are the nesting areas for birds, will be destroyed. Many species of fish lay their eggs in the waters beneath the mangrove trees that line the coast.
