The Return of the X-Flares | Hacker News Reader

The Return of the X-Flares

swpc.noaa.gov

69 pointsuticus24 comments

Shameless plug: I make time-lapse animations of solar flares (among other things) for fun, like this M-class [1] (46 min. of real time, 90 mm diameter telescope with narrow band Hydrogen-alpha filter).

[1] https://www.astrobin.com/289991/?nc=collection&nce=1468

Can you see anything if you look directly through the filter at the sun? I’m assuming it’s just a fuzzy red blob?

Yes, you can see just fine (with a bit less contrast than in those images). Of course, flares and prominences will not move in front of your eyes, but they do change over a few minutes.

Awesome! I always wondered about that.

Stunning stuff. The dark sunspot in the foreground and the one behind the tangle of plasma is intruiging.

Keeping an eye on this http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/fullday/ for the effects on the HF radio band, it might be quite interesting.

>More flares are expected from this region as it moves across the sun creating occasional degradation of high frequency (3-30 MHz) communication.

that's short wave radio, right?

More specifically the HF band.

Yes:

> There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 metres)

(from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortwave_radio)

Right, and this also includes CB radio.

https://www.spaceweather.gov/

The Coronal Mass Ejections item shows it particularly well.

Periodic reminders of the fragility of systems like power distribution if the energy cost for arcing reduces is good (I believe that's only one of the risks from a coronal mass ejection on powerlines and associated equipment)

The problem is that coronal mass ejection is the more likely event but by no means the worst: extreme gamma ray bursts[0] would wipe the global EEPROM (wetware) at scale.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-ray_burst

Nope. Gammaraybust is my WiFi-ID, which is the shield I've put up against that!

Double whammy -- right over the South Atlantic Anomaly.

Now it'll be the South Atlantic Anomalii.

Oh boy, can't wait to hear old Switchblade on the CB again.

What is the best way to mitigate the effects? I guess nothing for long distance since the radio waves need to bounce off the atmosphere, but what about for more local/direct line of sight?

Fibre optics deployed under the surface. Copper cables may work too for smaller flares, but they tend to burn up during larger events. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event

I don't think all Fiber optic is free from the effects of geomagnetic storms like the Carrington event. Lots of "fiber" also has copper along with it for critical telemetry and for powering repeaters placed directly into the cable assembly. If the repeaters burn up, the cable still fails.

That being said, if a geomagnetic storm takes out fiber laid on the bottom of the ocean we're probably all going to be needing new chromosomes shortly anyhow.

Fiber optics still need amplifiers every couple of kilometers – and to feed these, you'll need a metal-based electricity supply.

More like 100km, I believe.

Yes, but since in many locations in the world you won't find a power grid to tap into every hundred kilometers, that still means you'll effectively have a cable carrying both fiber and copper.

fiber optics might give you data, but you cannot run power over them, and power lines are basically huge antennas... There's not a lot you can do to mitigate that

This only affects HF radio. HF radio goes long distances cause bounce off ionosphere which is disrupted. HF radio isn't used for much these days, mainly amateurs. Most uses have switched to satellite which I don't think is disrupted. The one important use that might be affected is long-distance aviation radio.

Higher frequency line-of-sight radios should not be affected. I did see that the extra noise can affect GPS.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com