Britain could face widespread power blackouts and be left without critical communication signals for long periods of time, after the earth is hit by a once-in-a-generation ?space storm?, Nasa has warned.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/7819201/Nasa-warns-solar-flares-from-huge-space-storm-will-cause-devastation.html


Space Weather

Some more info on how to check for space weather updates and to avoid human-made magnetic storms in the bedroom.

You can track x-ray solar activity in real time here: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/today.html or http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/xray_5m.html

The solar flares from the 13 and 15 February 2011 certainly show their repercussions on Earth. The magnetic storm yesterday morning (17 Feb) (PST) was still classified as 'stormy,' which translates into fluctuations between 100 nT and 300 nT. The storm started to wane already in the afternoon, we are down to active now, that is, below 100 nT. Today it is still active. Quiet times return when we will reach 30 nT again.

http://www.spaceweather.gc.ca/sfst-2-eng.php

Mind you, most people in Western countries tend to sleep on major magnetic storms each night, anywhere between 1,000 nT to 100,000 nT (this is in addition to the natural background geomagnetic field just like the natural fluctuations mentioned above), in the form of heavily magnetized box spring mattresses.
If you do not believe me, take an oil-filled compass and check whether it shows due north across your entire bed or whether the needle dances around. A deviation of about 10° translates into roughly 5,000 nT.

With best wishes for magnetically quiet times,

Katharina
http://www.buildingbiology.ca


Waiting for the big one
http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/science/space/waiting-for-the-big-one-1.1035319


Informant: Martin Weatherall



More about the theme:

http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/search?q=solar+flare