Solar Flare!!!
Has everybody heard about the solar activity? There was an X17 solar flare early yesterday morning. Compare that to the solar warnings from last week, which was only X1.2 or so. (I’m not sure what the scale is, I just know that ‘X’ is the highest level). This is the third largest solar flare on record (not that humans have been recording this kind of thing for very long!). There was an X20 a few years ago — on my birthday in 2001. (for those that remember, that was the really crappy birthday I had, too) But it wasn’t pointed at Earth. This one is aimed directly at Earth. Even the X1.2 last week was only ‘a glancing blow.’
The last time any activity near this hit the Earth, 1 million people in Canada lost power. So watch your computers today, and backup everything! This is an excellent reason why I use my laptop as my file server — but remember everything is vulnerable as the storm passes. Science satellites have all been shut down already.
There is good news though! Late tonight (Wed.) there might be aurora as far south as Texas and Florida!! Sweet! Not a 100% chance, because there is a few other things that need to be aligned to get aurora. But it’s a better chance than a little Kansan like me will probably have in a long time. And auspiciously it is happening on the night after I get a new camera — one with a ‘nighttime photography’ mode, and a 30 second bulb exposure mode! (it hasn’t come in yet, but tracking says it’s on the truck)