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Scientists Predict Massive Ionosphere Inversion

Discussion in 'Amateur Radio News' started by KQ6XA, Mar 31, 2019.

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  1. KS2G

    KS2G Premium Subscriber QRZ Page

    Sure -- as will Sean Hannity. ;)
    [
     
    WA9JOQ, M1WML and KC8EQF like this.
  2. W7DMC

    W7DMC Ham Member QRZ Page

    A recurring annual concern. Suggest setting phasers to full so the nadion particle beams will have maximum effect
     
    M1WML likes this.
  3. KI6PMD

    KI6PMD Ham Member QRZ Page

    Thanks Bonnie as always & a very HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY ! to you 73' Phil KI6PMD..
     
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  4. M1WML

    M1WML Ham Member QRZ Page

    On March 10, 1989, there was an explosion on the sun. It catapulted a large mass of hot solar plasma off into space at thousands of kilometres a second.

    In the early hours of the 13th, this cloud, properly called a "coronal mass ejection,” hit us.

    The Earth's magnetic field convulsed, triggering a major magnetic storm that caused power outages, disruptions of communications and somewhere around $2 billion worth of damage.

    In 1859, there was a far bigger solar storm. Back then the only hi-tech communications system was the telegraph. Operators got electric shocks off their equipment and, in some cases, it caught fire.

    If we had another event like that today, the consequences would be enormous. We are now tied together by a complex communications, power and transportation infrastructure in a way that impacts almost all aspects of our lives.

    Solar activity can black out radio communications and disable communication satellites. Solar-induced currents can cause failures in electrical power systems and enhanced corrosion in pipelines.

    Enhanced high-altitude radiation due to solar activity can be a hazard to air travel on polar routes. Navigation systems can be disrupted, and on the ground, railway-signalling systems may be affected.

    Imagine losing the Internet for a week, or, having put all your data in the cloud, finding you cannot connect to it. Until recently we had no information as to how big a solar storm could be other than the 1859 event.

    Now, we know the sun can do far "better" than that.

    Although our medieval ancestors would not have noticed solar activity and solar storms much, apart from occasional displays of aurorae, those storms left some environmental signatures.

    Solar activity changes the intensity of high-energy particles hitting the upper atmosphere. When these particles hit atoms of oxygen or nitrogen, they create new elements, some of them radioactive.

    These new elements get carried down in rain and snow to the Earth's surface. In most places they just diffuse off into the soil. However when these atoms fall on permanent ice caps, they end up being trapped in a layer of surface ice.

    Then, the following year another layer forms on top, and so on, so that the icecap contains a historical record of solar activity. Scientists have extracted ice cores yielding solar activity records dating back to remote historical times.

    When we look at these ice cores, we can see the annual layering quite easily, so we can scan along the core looking for particular elements, counting the layers as we go. Doing this we can track solar activity back in time thousands of years.

    It has been found that although our hi-tech free ancestors never noticed, there have been solar storms far larger than anything of which we had prior knowledge.

    One hit the Earth in 660 BCE (BC). Others occurred in 775 and 994 CE (AD).

    Our vulnerability to bad solar behaviour is now at an all-time high, so the big question is when will the next supersized solar storm happen? Can it be predicted? How much warning will we get?

    In Canada, we are monitoring the sun every day and have an extensive set of instruments monitoring the Earth's ionosphere and magnetic field.

    We are trying to get a better understanding of the connection between what the sun gets up to and what the consequences would be here on Earth.

    Working with international partners, our aim is to minimize what the sun can do to our modern, technology-dependent way of life.

    This involves prediction of dangerous solar activity, assessment of its potential impacts, and developing means to mitigate them, and where there is damage, making the recovery as rapid as possible.

    We will solve these problems because we have to.

    • Mars lies in the southwest after dark.
    • Jupiter rises around 2 a.m.
    • Saturn rises around 3 a.m.
    • Venus lies low in the dawn glow.
    • The moon will new on the 5th.
     
  5. K0DD

    K0DD Premium Subscriber QRZ Page

    Really? I have really been worried about this...
     
  6. K1LKP

    K1LKP Ham Member QRZ Page


    STEVE, GOOD CATCH
    A 5 THEY CANCELLED APRIL FOOLS DAY.jpg
    Mouse laughing.gif
     
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  7. KB3WGE

    KB3WGE Ham Member QRZ Page

    It'll all work out,good article; 73's kb3wge
     
  8. K2CAJ

    K2CAJ XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    Not looking forward to all the bizarro-world reverse ionosphere zombies whining that the bands are undead.
     
  9. K3FHP

    K3FHP XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    Don't care what it does as long as it increases the solar flux and propagation.
     
  10. W4KJG

    W4KJG Subscriber QRZ Page

    I tracked it on PSK Reporter using my old and venerable Compact All-Band Antenna designed by Larsen E. Rapp, WIOU. It is from his 1957 article in QST.

    I saw it starting to happen late yesterday afternoon before sundown here on Oak Island, North Carolina on 40 meters. Propagation began shifting from Europe and Africa to Central and South America. By about 5:00 AM EDT it was all Australia, Hawaii, Japan, and the rest of the Pacific. Twenty meters became nearly totally dead during that period.

    This was a very special event to witness in my lifetime!

    Thank you KQ6XA for alerting us to this.

    Ken
    W4KJG
     
    KQ6XA likes this.
  11. WA5MD

    WA5MD Premium Subscriber QRZ Page

    That's a good one, Bonnie.
    This current solar cycle is so bad, I'm nearly ready to believe anything that offers good news!
     
    KQ6XA likes this.
  12. VE3XIN

    VE3XIN Ham Member QRZ Page

    Qeu Bunea mentira por dia de Abril uno!
    Congratulaciones por articulo!

    73!

    Mirek!
     
  13. K9CTB

    K9CTB Ham Member QRZ Page

    The Max Prank institute ... LOL I think I studied there. Several times. They have quite an extension program.
     
    KG5ZSU and KQ6XA like this.
  14. W4MHZ

    W4MHZ Ham Member QRZ Page

  15. KC8VWM

    KC8VWM Ham Member QRZ Page

    Has Starfleet been notified about the sterile neutrino field anomaly?
     
    KG5ZSU, WB9YTG and KQ6XA like this.

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