Do I need to be concerned about the latest C class solar flare that is heading towards earth?

[Tom W]

Hi all, 

Im very new to understand and learning about the sun and all of its affects but I feel as though my recent interest couldn’t be at a worse time! I feel very overwhelmed by what is currently happening with the sun and feel quite concerned about life on earth etc. 
 

for example what are the likely affects that will be caused by the flare we’ve just witnessed and do I need to be grinding digging my hole for this solid cycle ;) 

Anything explained to me like I’m 5 would be greatly appreciated. 
 

cheers In advance :) 

Tom

[Vancanneyt Sander]

This is still normal solar activity, the sun is waking up after being very quiet for the past few years and solar activity is now slowly rising and the activity will continue to rise until 2025 when solar maximum is reached for this 25th cycle. In a solar maximum year there can be up to 2000 solar flares. 
As the Earth has a nice protection system, the magnetosphere, we are good protected from harmful radiation from outer space so it won’t have any effect (unless severe storming occurs but even then in ground level all is good). If you live at a high latitude location there is Aurora as a nice side effect to view, how nice is that  no need to dig a hole 

[MinYoongi]

1 hour ago, Vancanneyt Sander said:

This is still normal solar activity, the sun is waking up after being very quiet for the past few years and solar activity is now slowly rising and the activity will continue to rise until 2025 when solar maximum is reached for this 25th cycle. In a solar maximum year there can be up to 2000 solar flares. 
As the Earth has a nice protection system, the magnetosphere, we are good protected from harmful radiation from outer space so it won’t have any effect (unless severe storming occurs but even then in ground level all is good). If you live at a high latitude location there is Aurora as a nice side effect to view, how nice is that  no need to dig a hole 

So true!

Did you see the CME eruption it produced? It looks southward. Maybe some Aurora Chance still? I trust you with forecasts since im very bad in interpreting the trajectory

[Vancanneyt Sander]

Read our latest news item for an update on the solar flare and associated CME. We’ll still have to wait for LASCO imagery to get an Earth view and determine the propagation but STEREO looks promising. High latitude Aurora is expected when it arrives. 

[MinYoongi]

4 hours ago, Vancanneyt Sander said:

Read our latest news item for an update on the solar flare and associated CME. We’ll still have to wait for LASCO imagery to get an Earth view and determine the propagation but STEREO looks promising. High latitude Aurora is expected when it arrives. 

Hey. So ive seen Nasa Enlil and it looks harsh. Im a bit scared

 

 

isnt that super fast? The 9th? 

Sorry for always being so super scared. Im just very young (20) and its my first solar cycle. I can not properly differenciate between Harmful and non-harmful spaceweather. This just looks like a big boom and im scared the grid will be knocked.. do you expect g5+ ?:( Hope youre not mad. Love this forum x

[3D-Slug]

Some youtubers today sparking some fear at the possibility of power grids and communications going down all over the world starting with Asia on the 9th including a possible shock wave due to a CME. are they just fear mongering or should people actually be getting prepared for no power and start making tin hats?

 

 

[Vancanneyt Sander]

4 uren geleden, MinYoongi zei:

So ive seen Nasa Enlil and it looks harsh. Im a bit scared

Nothing to be scared of, this is normal space weather and this will happen more frequently as the solar activity will rise towards solar maximum.

23 minuten geleden, 3D-Slug zei:

Some youtubers today sparking some fear at the possibility of power grids and communications going down all over the world starting with Asia on the 9th including a possible shock wave due to a CME. are they just fear mongering or should people actually be getting prepared for no power and start making tin hats?

Fake news. The power grid operators are prepared for severe space weather and what happened yesterday is nothing out of the ordinary. These events happened many times before and is normal space weather. Don’t listen to that bullshit.

[FredSchuller]

Hi, there doesn't seem to be SOHO images between 15:42 and 21:18 yesterday... does it just take longer to process, or could it be that there was something wrong with the instrument at that time?

Fred

 

[Marcel de Bont]

8 minuten geleden, FredSchuller zei:

Hi, there doesn't seem to be SOHO images between 15:42 and 21:18 yesterday... does it just take longer to process, or could it be that there was something wrong with the instrument at that time?

Fred

SOHO data is always delayed by a couple of hours at least but there is data available right now of that time period. We will soon post a news article which includes SOHO imagery.

[Tamara Brown]

16 uren geleden, Tom W zei:

Hi all, 

Im very new to understand and learning about the sun and all of its affects but I feel as though my recent interest couldn’t be at a worse time! I feel very overwhelmed by what is currently happening with the sun and feel quite concerned about life on earth etc. 
 

for example what are the likely affects that will be caused by the flare we’ve just witnessed and do I need to be grinding digging my hole for this solid cycle

Anything explained to me like I’m 5 would be greatly appreciated. 
 

cheers In advance

Tom

I had never even heard of spaceweather 3 years ago and is like to think I've come a long way, worth many more long ways to go! A one hour long series of videos on YT was what finally started to plug in some puzzle pieces for me... All about the sun. 

Another thing that really helped me was printing the NOAA scales... There are 3 diff scales as there are 3 main types of  different event... Here are the scales https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation

 

 

5 uren geleden, Vancanneyt Sander zei:

Nothing to be scared of, this is normal space weather and this will happen more frequently as the solar activity will rise towards solar maximum.

Fake news. The power grid operators are prepared for severe space weather and what happened yesterday is nothing out of the ordinary. These events happened many times before and is normal space weather. Don’t listen to that bullshit.

Agree completely, anyone who states that they know for certain the effects of any event isn't telling the truth. While we can estimate, it's hard to define or predict w/ any accuracy. It's a C-Class flare... The scale is exponential, like earthquakes so each step up is a BIG step up. If we had an X flare, I'd have a different opinion 😉. 

It's not bad to watch all the different YT Channels, but you know what's science and what's speculation. I prefer to watch science "above my pay grade," and watch multiple times until it starts to sink in. 

One certain way to get a heads up on activity is to watch the satellites... Not the actual videos, but the charts that monitor their charging health. If the satts all stop charging and go into safe mode or stop responding, throw your laptop and phone in the microwave to protect against emp, not the best Faraday cage, but it'll do better than nothing. 

The thing that is very annoying is that right when you want to really pay attention and are learning as fast as you can, the biggest effect to earth is on our communications. Phones act weird, rebooting, internet slows down to nearly dial up modem speed... 😬🚀⚡

 

Heres link to satellite charging... https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/satellites

[MinYoongi]

A full halo CME was first seen by LASCO C2 at 16:24 UT on 7 December, with
a speed of 1280 km/s, associated with a long duration C7.4 flare from NOAA
AR 2790. It is expected to arrive to the Earth around 17:00 UT on December
9.

1280km/s ... isnt that very fast? im scared. This one youtuber said communication will fail im so scared. Can someone please calm me down im having severe panic.

 

Noaa says G1, you guys expect G2 minimum and G3 maybe, SIDC Belgium says "up to" G2 but expects G1 and some Youtubers say G3-G4 and Internet Failure. Idk what to expect and believe anymore since SIDC said 1280km/s and noaa 880. and im so scared that things will fail.  

Edited December 8, 2020 by MinYoongi
More info

[stevenfraussen]

28 minuten geleden, MinYoongi zei:

A full halo CME was first seen by LASCO C2 at 16:24 UT on 7 December, with
a speed of 1280 km/s, associated with a long duration C7.4 flare from NOAA
AR 2790. It is expected to arrive to the Earth around 17:00 UT on December
9.

1280km/s ... isnt that very fast? im scared. This one youtuber said communication will fail im so scared. Can someone please calm me down im having severe panic

1280 km/s is actually quite common for a CME. There's no need to be scared. Our geomagnetic field is very capable of defending our planet from the effects of a CME. The only thing to be scared of now is clouds, because you might miss a decent aurora showing if they're in your way. 🙂 

Also one tip: don't put too much faith in those youtubers. They only get views because of their fear mongering. Communication won't fail with a (predicted) geomagnetic storm like this.

Edited December 8, 2020 by stevenfraussen
clearing something up

[MinYoongi]

2 minutes ago, stevenfraussen said:

1280 km/s is actually quite common for a CME. There's no need to be scared. Our geomagnetic field is very capable of defending our planet from the effects of a CME. The only thing to be scared of now is clouds, because you might miss a decent aurora showing if they're in your way. 🙂 

Also one tip: don't put too much faith in those youtubers. They only get views because of their fear mongering. Communication won't fail with a (predicted) geomagnetic storm like this.

Thanks steven. He said Flights may have Problems or even the Internet collapsing. So you think this wont happen?

The thing making me so anxious is just the discrepancy of expectations. NOAA and sidc say G1-G2, This Forum says G3, Youtube G3-G4..

[Marcel de Bont]

Turn off YouTube for a while, get a good night sleep and perhaps a glass of wine if you are into that kind of things. You'll see nothing will happen apart from a bunch of people becoming very happy that they have seen some amazing aurora.

[MinYoongi]

6 minutes ago, Marcel de Bont said:

Turn off YouTube for a while, get a good night sleep and perhaps a glass of wine if you are into that kind of things. You'll see nothing will happen apart from a bunch of people becoming very happy that they have seen some amazing aurora.

Wine is a good Idea ;') 

Okay.. I was just a bit scared that i maybe lose contact to my family in denmark.. but if you say only aurora, im happy for the photographers. Maybe there will be Aurora Livestreams again.. 😊

[Knowledge83]

I love everyone is downplaying this cme cause honestly with our magneticfield down almost 25% can earth honestly take a strong c flare? Maybe years ago without a problem but now I'm not so sure and idk how anybody else is saying this is normal we have never been without a strong shield during a magnetic reversal so please don't play possum just can't wait to see the aurora will central ny be able to see it o hope??

[Vancanneyt Sander]

The magnetic field of the Earth is not weakening and there’s no magnetic reversal. The only magnetic reversal that took place was on the Sun where the polarity has changed since the start of SC25. 
C-class flares are common and during a solar maximum year there can be up to more than 2000 C-class flares in one year. 

[MinYoongi]

@Vancanneyt SanderIm talking about this stuff right there. Fearmongery. 

[Marcel de Bont]

11 uren geleden, MinYoongi zei:

@Vancanneyt SanderIm talking about this stuff right there. Fearmongery. 

Got a little secret: you can't believe everything you read and hear on the internet. Pick reliable sources and always be critical as to what you are hearing and reading. There are unfortunately a lot of people out there who prey on people's fears and try to make money out of it. Be vigilant.