Violet Posted November 6, 2021 Share Posted November 6, 2021 Hi. Does anyone have any suggestions for where to learn the basics of how solar activity impacts our planet and life here? I've been checking out the NOAA website and feel a bit overwhelmed. I'd like to stay attuned to what's happening (because it's so fascinating!) and I want to learn to track how activity could impact earth (the grid, etc...) Thanks! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinYoongi Posted November 6, 2021 Share Posted November 6, 2021 11 minutes ago, Violet said: Hi. Does anyone have any suggestions for where to learn the basics of how solar activity impacts our planet and life here? I've been checking out the NOAA website and feel a bit overwhelmed. I'd like to stay attuned to what's happening (because it's so fascinating!) and I want to learn to track how activity could impact earth (the grid, etc...) Thanks! Welcome, Violet! Yeah, I can imagine that u feel fairly overwhelmed. Its a lot of Information and most importantly, a lot of Data and Graphs that u gotta learn to read and interpret. I think what you can start with is the FAQ on this page! It helped me alot. Also Dr.Tamitha Skov's Videos and Patreon helped me greatly. and of course this forum! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vacuum Posted November 6, 2021 Share Posted November 6, 2021 40 minutes ago, Violet said: Hi. Does anyone have any suggestions for where to learn the basics of how solar activity impacts our planet and life here? I've been checking out the NOAA website and feel a bit overwhelmed. I'd like to stay attuned to what's happening (because it's so fascinating!) and I want to learn to track how activity could impact earth (the grid, etc...) Thanks! I also wonder this! 'Something simple-ish that presents the information in a helpful order. So far, my understanding has come from the weather live home page and Google for clarifications. The folks here seem friendly so ask away! Then I don't have too 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Posted November 6, 2021 Author Share Posted November 6, 2021 4 hours ago, MinYoongi said: Welcome, Violet! Yeah, I can imagine that u feel fairly overwhelmed. Its a lot of Information and most importantly, a lot of Data and Graphs that u gotta learn to read and interpret. I think what you can start with is the FAQ on this page! It helped me alot. Also Dr.Tamitha Skov's Videos and Patreon helped me greatly. and of course this forum! Thanks for you suggestions! MinYoongi, that's it- data, graphs and especially the acronyms and abbreviations... Appreciate the referral to videos and the FAQ page - brilliant idea! : ) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Warfel Posted November 7, 2021 Share Posted November 7, 2021 10 hours ago, Violet said: Hi. Does anyone have any suggestions for where to learn the basics of how solar activity impacts our planet and life here? I've been checking out the NOAA website and feel a bit overwhelmed. I'd like to stay attuned to what's happening (because it's so fascinating!) and I want to learn to track how activity could impact earth (the grid, etc...) Thanks! The help articles on SWL are excellent as well. That, posting on the forums, and just watching the solar and geomagnetic activity and learning patterns from it, etc. are where I learned most of it. Welcome to monitoring the Aurora! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHeroOfTime Posted November 7, 2021 Share Posted November 7, 2021 Op 6/11/2021 om 19:35, Violet zei: Hi. Does anyone have any suggestions for where to learn the basics of how solar activity impacts our planet and life here? I've been checking out the NOAA website and feel a bit overwhelmed. I'd like to stay attuned to what's happening (because it's so fascinating!) and I want to learn to track how activity could impact earth (the grid, etc...) Thanks! Glad to have you here! I am not a professional, but I think I have a decent understanding maybe, I'm probably going to miss a lot of important points like shock fronts and delays, butterfly charts etc, but Vancanneyt Sander is here, among some other smart people who will be happy to answer your questions. So, typically I wake up and check if the sun is still there. I usually do this by looking directly at it (never do this!), so I can observe it firsthand. After I recover from the temporary blindness, I then check the LASCO coronagraph on the SWPC website. This instrument has an occlusive disk that blocks out most of the sun's radiation, so we can see the "corona", which is all of the hairy stuff that flies off the outer edges of the solar disk. This plasma is fighting between gravity and electromagnetism, some of it shoots out but curls back in because of Sol's gravity and complex magnetic field. Here is an example of a full halo CME: Looking at LASCO data, when our Sun releases a coronal mass ejection or "CME", it looks like a fog emanating from either the sides or "limbs", or a frontal ejection towards Earth, which they call a full-halo CME, it looks like a flower blooming. When this happens, you'll see "snow" on the footage. It is time lapsed footage, but this sun material is still traveling extremely fast, hundreds of km/s. CMEs usually happen after solar flares, but they can also come from coronal holes, which are magnetically awkward areas of the sun that don't pull the plasma back in via electromagnetic force. They win the fight against gravity, and travel outward until they hit our planet. I then check this site, which was thoughtfully put together by some smart minds in Europe. It collects data from many sources and turns it into an intuitive, interactive site that is easy to understand. Sunspot regions are tracked and labeled by number, classified by their size, complexity and polarity. Think of iron filings on a bar magnet, but they are constantly changing and zigzagging all over the place. Sometimes they SNAP together or apart, and cause a solar flare. Charged electrons from solar flares can be detected by X-ray detectors aboard the GOES satellite, and those readings are plotted here on this site: Solar flares can wreak havoc on radio communications, but CMEs can actually affect electrical circuits on the ground if they are powerful enough, which is what I think you're concerned about. Think density and speed, would you rather someone lightly throw a handful of styrofoam beads at you, or spray you with a fire hose full of liquid mercury at full-strength? Obviously, to fully understand what is going on, you need to have a good grasp of particle physics, which is some pretty serious stuff, I am nowhere near close to understanding even the basics. Search "electronvolt" and you'll see what I mean. Like MinYoogi said, Tamitha Skov is awesome, she makes things very easy to understand and breaks it down Barney-style. Scott McIntosh (you can follow him on Twitter) is also very knowledgeable. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archmonoth Posted November 7, 2021 Share Posted November 7, 2021 12 hours ago, Violet said: Hi. Does anyone have any suggestions for where to learn the basics of how solar activity impacts our planet and life here? I've been checking out the NOAA website and feel a bit overwhelmed. I'd like to stay attuned to what's happening (because it's so fascinating!) and I want to learn to track how activity could impact earth (the grid, etc...) Thanks! For me it is the wikipedia articles. The Sun is a good starting point. Sun - Wikipedia 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aryan Singh Posted November 22, 2021 Share Posted November 22, 2021 Hi! I am learning as well. So far what I have been doing is to keep my own personal google doc which places and labels urls to the kinds of data visualization that I felt were most helpful. I am horrible at programming and python - even though I studied it for like 3 whole years in my undergrad. But given that I am planning my Masters in it I feel i am going to do my best to get better at it- moreover, SDO and plenty of other Space Weather / Heliophysics organizations have their own detailed guides on how to visualize and conduct your own analyses. The one that I felt was the most comprehensive so far is SDO's - https://www.lmsal.com/sdodocs/doc/dcur/SDOD0060.zip/zip/entry/ - which I feel I am going to follow and revise python with. The link to the pdf is here - https://www.lmsal.com/sdodocs/doc/dcur/SDOD0060.zip/zip/entry/sdoguideli2.html#x5-2000. But apart from that I will second this thread regarding Tamitha Skov, with regards to grasping the theory aspect of it, she is probably the first and main one that you encounter online. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christina.F Posted November 22, 2021 Share Posted November 22, 2021 Hello everyone, I would like to take the opportunity to greet you all aswell. Previously was a flat earther however I've now since using a real telescope, changed my outlook on life - am hoping to learn alot about our spherical sun. Christina (UK) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solarflaretracker200 Posted November 22, 2021 Share Posted November 22, 2021 (edited) On 11/7/2021 at 12:08 AM, TheHeroOfTime said: So, typically I wake up and check if the sun is still there. I usually do this by looking directly at it, so I can observe it firsthand. After I recover from the temporary blindness, I then check the LASCO coronagraph on the SWPC website. Well have fun with blindness every day 😂 (I know your joking about that part) I just found that funny Edited November 22, 2021 by Solarflaretracker200 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archmonoth Posted November 22, 2021 Share Posted November 22, 2021 8 hours ago, Christina.F said: Hello everyone, I would like to take the opportunity to greet you all aswell. Previously was a flat earther however I've now since using a real telescope, changed my outlook on life - am hoping to learn alot about our spherical sun. Grats on learning a new perspective! Welcome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vancanneyt Sander Posted November 22, 2021 Share Posted November 22, 2021 Op 7/11/2021 om 07:08, TheHeroOfTime zei: So, typically I wake up and check if the sun is still there. I usually do this by looking directly at it, so I can observe it firsthand. After I recover from the temporary blindness I hope you’re joking because every year there are people that do this literally. When you want to look at the sun safely, you can do that with a solar eclipse glass, through a solar telescope or telescope equipped with a solar filter. That’s the only safe way, protect your eyes! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Warfel Posted November 22, 2021 Share Posted November 22, 2021 He’s just joking 🤣 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vancanneyt Sander Posted November 22, 2021 Share Posted November 22, 2021 Zojuist, Orneno zei: He’s just joking 🤣 I wanted to say it anyway because some people would take things literally and that would be an issue 😉 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Warfel Posted November 22, 2021 Share Posted November 22, 2021 3 hours ago, Vancanneyt Sander said: I wanted to say it anyway because some people would take things literally and that would be an issue 😉 True true, I suppose you can never be too careful on the internet, there will always be certain people who don't quite get it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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