13 July 2012 Update: A Coronal Mass Ejection is headed our way.  Solar eruptions like these pose a danger to Earth's technology, satellites, spacecraft, astronauts and passengers in aircraft at high latitudes.  The blast of charged particles and electro magnetic  radiation can cause radio blackouts, and in extreme cases disrupt power. 

About every one hundred years earth is hit with a direct blast from a CME.  Our power grid IS very fragile particularly the large transformers connecting generation stations to the grid.  We are over due for a large CME it could put the modern world back in the stone ages in a few days.  It could take years to replace repair the transformers.  Grid failure would put four hundred nuclear reactors at risk of melt down after a few weeks from loss of cooling power.[5]    

09 June 2011

The sun is starting to wake up.  Magnetic storms periodically release large emissions of charged particle.  It takes a few days for the particles to reach earth and collides with the upper atmosphere.

Update: An extremely powerful solar flare, the largest in over four years, rocked the sun early Tuesday (Aug. 9), but is unlikely to wreak any serious havoc here on Earth, scientists say.

The sun is waking up 

We had a similar event on 8 June 2011. The sun is starting to wake up and becoming more active.  Other serious solar blasts occurred in 1921 and 1940, he noted, and Kunches recalled one on Halloween in 2003.  A 1989 solar flare knocked out the electrical systems in Quebec, Canada.  A supper storm  the occurrences of September 1-2, 1859, within hours, telegraph wires in both the United States and Europe spontaneously shorted out, causing numerous fires, while the Northern Lights, solar-induced phenomena more closely associated with regions near Earth's North Pole, were documented as far south as Rome, Havana and Hawaii, with similar effects at the South Pole.   A large earth directed CME could potentially bring down the entire power grid. And not just here, but around the world. The kind of damage that would be caused could take months to repair.

“It was a big flare,” said Joe Kunches, a space scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Space Weather Prediction Center. “We lucked out because the site of the eruption at the sun was not facing the Earth, so we will probably feel no ill effects.”  It is just a matter of time before we are down wind from a large storm, that will create havoc with satellites, power grids and deliver a larger radiation dose to travelers and flight crews.  Satellite communications and Global Positioning Systems could face problems.

Expect more flares over the next 2-3 years 

Update: Today’s solar flare began at 9 Aug 11, 3:48 a.m. EDT (0748 GMT), and was rated a class X6.9 on the three-class scale scientists use to measure the strength of solar flares. The strongest type of solar eruption is class X, while class C represents the weakest and class M flares are medium-strength events. [Video: Aug. 9 Solar Flare Briefly Knocks Out HF Radio]

Greater exposure living at high altitudes

Our atmosphere acts as a radiation shield, living or flying at high altitudes increases your exposure by about 5 mrem per thousand feet.  Once the particles reach the Earth charged particles are usually captured by the Earth’s magnetic field, and primarily get funneled to the poles.

"If you fly from the United States to Asia, flying over the North Pole, there are well over a dozen flights every day,"  Flying at high latitudes or live a altitudes you will receive a greater dose when the wind arrives in about 18 hours.  Credit

Generally it is not going to cause any big problems, it will just have to be managed," he said.  During these big radiation storms some of these airlines will reroute the flights away from the polar regions for safety reasons to make sure they can maintain communications and reduce crew and passenger exposure.

The sun is constantly ejecting charged particles forming the solar winds.  The sun periodically releases huge quantities of very hot material known as Coronal mass ejection (CME) are thrown into space as shown above.  If earth is down wind from a major CME you may want to consider delaying air travel plans till the wind has passed, solar weather reports are available. Airlines may divert flights closer to the equator to reduce exposure.  Large events happen about every 90 years with the potential to knock out the world power grid. The resulting loss of power would cause hundreds of reactors world wide to melt down in a few weeks.    

Rocky Flats Gear is the USA manufacture of radiation attenuating garments. Our products also work to reduce personal exposure from medical, dental and security scanners and provide privacy and enhancing dignity.

Related Stories:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/06/110608-solar-flare-sun-science-space/

http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMYTMRRJHG_index_0.html

http://beta.news.yahoo.com/unusual-solar-storm-could-disrupt-earth-communications-194814480.html

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2003/23oct_superstorm/

http://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2010/03/31/WeatherMertenser1.pdf

[5] http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-12-25/government-spends-trillions-unlikely-threats-%E2%80%A6-won%E2%80%99t-spend-billion-dollars-pr