RADIATION STORM: A low-level radiation storm is underway as solar protons swarm around our planet. Ranked S1 on NOAA space weather scales, the storm poses no serious threat to astronauts or satellites. Nevertheless it is a nuisance. Minor radiation storms can cause occasional reboots of computers onboard spacecraft and add “snow” to spacecraft imaging systems. This SOHO coronagraph image of the sun, taken during the early hours of July 20th, is a good example:
Each of the speckles in the image (a handful are circled) are caused by protons hitting the spacecraft’s CCD camera. During minor storms it is possible to see through this kind of snow. During severe storms, such images become practically opaque.
The protons were accelerated toward Earth by an M7-class solar flare on July 19th. Although the blast site (sunspot AR1520) was on the farside of the sun, the protons were able to reach Earth anyway, guided toward our planet by backward-spiralling lines of magnetic force.
Researchers have made a startling correlation between the rise and fall of solar activity and the human consciousness.
Professor Raymond Wheeler of the University of Kansas has come to the same conclusions that Russian scientist Alexander Chizhevsky discovered in 1915.
Solar storms directly cause conflict, wars and even death among humans on Earth.
The sun’s activity, as it interacts with the Earth’s magnetic field, effect extensive changes in human being’s perspectives, moods, emotions and behavioral patterns.
During solar minimums and maximums the geomagnetic fields begin to intensify. The magnetic fields interact with human electrochemically within the brain. It affects psychological mechanisms creating anomalous hormonal swings and significantly mutated brain-wave activity.
Wheeler expanded on Chishevsky’s work by studying violence during 1913; measuring the time between battles and severity. These findings were compared with the sun’s 11 year sunspot cycle.
The results showed that as the sun cycle peaked, there was a rise in human unrest, uprisings, rebellions, revolutions, and wars between nations. As the magnetic fields intensified, the reaction within the human brain was a mixture of deadly emotional tantrums and unadulterated killing sprees.
As Wheeler further compared his findings with human history, he found a startling pattern that could be traced back 2,500 years.
In solar cycle 22, at the sun’s maximum we experienced Iraq invading Kuwait and the US entering the first battle against Saddam Hussein.
Just eleven years later, as the sun became active again, 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq ensued.
In the latter half of 2010, the sun reached another peak that affected the Earth’s magnetic field; we witnessed dissent in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen.
Those global uprisings spread to Syria, Libya, Iran and China as riots continued across the European landscape.
This civil unrest has now reached its influence across the modernized world and even into Middle Eastern countries, Africa and Asia.
It is projected, based on Wheeler’s research, as the sun’s activity increases, so will the violence on Earth.
We are now entering the 24th solar cycle.
A surge in solar activity by 50 times more than previously recorded is anticipated. NASA and other space agencies have been warning of this fact.
Through 2011 and onto 2012, the X-flares are expected to endure toward their maximum. As this incredible activity is being witnessed, we are assured that more wars, toppling countries and populations will be displaced.
In 2012 we are seeing these events coming to pass; with only more intensification to come.
Wheeler’s predecessor was a man named Dr. Robert Becker. Becker was an author, expert in biological electricity and a professor with State University. In 1963, Becker, along with his colleague, Dr. Freedman, discovered that there was a marked correlation between solar activity and psychotic outbreaks of mass insanity on Earth.
Becker and Freedman made their most dire predictions of incredible violence to culminate in the years 2012 and 2013.
ALMOST X-FLARE : Sunspot complex AR1520-1521 erupted again on July 19th, this time producing an M7-class solar flare that almost crossed the threshold into X-territory. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash:
The explosion produced a bright coronal mass ejection. The cloud should miss Earth.
Although the explosion occured on the other side of the sun’s western limb, our planet could feel some effects. The blast site is magnetically connected to Earth by backward-spiralling lines of magnetic force. Protons accelerated by the flare are being guided to us by those lines of magnetism, and a mild radiation storm is underway.
X-FLARE! Big sunspot AR1520 unleashed an X1.4-class solar flare on July 12th. Because the sunspot is directly facing Earth, everything about the blast was geoeffective. For one thing, it hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) directly toward our planet. According to a forecast track prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the CME will hit Earth on July 14th around 10:20 UT (+/- 7 hours) and could spark strong geomagnetic storms. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras this weekend.
The explosion also strobed Earth with a pulse of extreme UV radiation, shown here in a movie recorded by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory:
The UV pulse partially ionized Earth’s upper atmosphere, disturbing the normal propagation of radio signals around the planet. Monitoring stations in Norway, Ireland and Italy recorded the sudden ionospheric disturbance.
Finally, solar protons accelerated by the blast are swarming around Earth. The radiation storm, in progress, ranks “S1” on NOAA space weather scales, which means it poses no serious threat to satellites or astronauts. This could change if the storm continues to intensify.
SOLAR ARCHIPELAGO: Sunspots are magnetic islands on the sun. Sunspot AR1520 is a complete archipelago. Scroll down to scan more than 200,000 miles of island chain:
Amateur astronomer Alan Friedman took the picture on July 10th from his backyard observatory in Buffalo, New York. “AR1520 is a tremendous archipelago and a wonderful target for backyard solar telescopes,” he says.
The tangled magnetic canopy of the sunspot group, shown here in an extreme UV image from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, harbors energy for strong solar flares. NOAA forecasters estimate an 80% chance of M-class flares and a 15% chance of X-class flares during the next 24 hours.
ANOTHER BIG SUNSPOT: As one big sunspot (AR1515) turns away from Earth, another one is turning toward our planet. AR1520, now emerging over the sun’s southeastern limb, stretches more than 127,000 km (10 Earth diameters) from end to end:
AR1520 has a ‘beta-gamma’ magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares. So far, however, the sunspot’s magnetic canopy is crackling with lesser C-flares. The calm before the storm? NOAA forecasters estimate an 80% chance of M-flares during the next 24 hours.
X-FLARE: For days, giant sunspot AR1515 has looked capable of producing a really strong explosion. On July 6th it finally did. Yesterday, the sunspot’s magnetic canopy erupted, producing a brief but potent X1.1-class solar flare. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash:
The explosion hurled a CME into space. According to this movie from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, the cloud appears to be heading south and away from Earth. However, we cannot yet rule out a glancing blow to our planet on July 8th or 9th. Stay tuned for further analysis.
Look at the CME movie one more time. The speckles near the end are caused by energetic protons accelerated by the flare. Guided toward Earth by solar magnetic fields, the protons are peppering Earth-orbiting satellites, causing “snow” in imaging systems and posing a slim threat for single-event upsets (computer glitches).
WAVES OF IONIZATION: Sunspot AR1515 is strobing Earth with C- and M-class solar flares. Each pulse of x-rays and extreme UV radiation creates a wave of ionization in our planet’s upper atmosphere. These sudden ionospheric disturbances, also known as “SIDs,” alter the propagation of radio signals around Earth. Yesterday, amateur scientist Roberto Battaiola detected a series of SIDs over Pantigliate, Italy:
“I monitored the radio frequency of 21.75 kHz,” he says.
More SIDs are in the offing as AR1515 continues to crackle with strong solar flares. In fact, a really big SID could occur if, as expected, AR1515 produces an X-class flare before it rotates off the solar disk a few days from now.
INCOMING CME: On July 4th, sunspot AR1515 hurled at least four minor CMEs into space. Most flew south of the ecliptic plane (the orbital plane of the planets), on track to miss everything. One of them, however, appears to be heading toward Earth. Click to view an animated forecast track of the incoming cloud:
According to analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, who prepared the forecast, the cloud will reach Earth on July 7th around 0600 UT. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras on that date.
HIGH SOLAR ACTIVITY: Behemoth sunspot AR1515 is crackling with M-class solar flares and appears to be on the verge of producing an X-class explosion. NOAA forecasters estimate an 80% chance of M-flares and a 25% chance of X-flares during the next 24 hours.
