Solar Maximum – That is the name of the current Solar Cycle we are heading into.

It’s been really active in the past month, and now we have a new M9-Class flare headed our way.

Solar Activity

The Space Weather site tracks and monitors the current space weather. During the holidays there was increased activity. I noticed my cell communications with my family in Reno Nv was getting pretty noisy.

This new flare is a pretty good sized – currently we are being bathed in a C1-Class field of ‘space radiation’ is predicted to reach M9-Class peaking around 9:00am Tuesday January 24th.

NASA’s scientists are monitoring this event which is the result of a substantial CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) which took place this morning.

Solar Flare Categories

Solar Flares are categorized as A, B, C, M, or X strength.

Each alphabet character has nine sub-values – 1 through 9 – and each number represents a Ten Time larger value than the previous number… so a C1 Class flare is 1/10th the strength of a C2 Class flare.

>>>Whoops! <<<

The red text above is an *ERROR* – It should say that each CLASS is a 10x increase in value – Only the CLASSES (A, B, C, M, X) have a 10 times increase.

For example: Class strength of M2-Class has twice the energy of a M1-Class flare. Within each class, the energy / radiation effect is a linear progression!

The M9-Class flare we are expecting is the top of the M category.

The A and B classes are typically seen during the Solar Minimum cycle.

X-Class Flares – The strongest level of Flares – X-Class Flares can cause Earth wide radio blackouts and long lasting radiation storms

M-Class Flares – These are medium strength flares – Radio is typically affected particularly in the Earth’s polar zones.

C-Class Flares – These small strength flares typically do not cause disruptions.

Solar Cycles And Sun Spots

Since the beginning of Solar Maximus cycle, which has been building over the past year, there have been only 2 days without sunspot activity. Comparing this with 2009 we see that there were 260 days without sunspot activity.

The Space Weather site lists a ‘Typical” Solar Minimum cycle of 486 ‘spotless’ days.

What’s Ahead

After my Facebook post a reader (Thanks Sis!)  forwarded an article by The Washington Post National: Biggest solar storm since 2005 underway, will peak Tuesdayby Brian Vastag – In this well researched article Brian Vastag quotes physicist Doug Biesecker saying :

The storm will peak Tuesday when a speeding cloud of plasma and charged particles blasts past Earth, distorting the planet’s magnetic field with impacts possibly ranging as far south in latitude as Texas and Arizona.

“We expect moderate to potentially strong geomagnetic storming that can cause pipeline corrosion effects and power grid fluctuations,” Biesecker said.”

In Summary

This Solar Maximum cycle is just getting started. Northern regions of the Earth are now tilted away from the Sun resulting in only glancing blows from these storms.

Those of us in the Southern regions of the northern continents would be well advised to perform an extra backup or two I would think. Having a nice UPS on your system would not be a bad idea either.

Afterall, we are very early in this Solar Maximum cycle… so the investment in a Battery Backup or Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) may come in very handy in the future.

Another thought – GPS may be effected as well, so perhaps a printed map is a good idea if you are straying off your normal ‘beaten path’…

Till we talk again, Be Safe Out There!

Patrick Seeber . President of Seeber Consulting

Quality Computer Service & Repair Tucson AZ

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