Okay. The physicist in me demands I dispel some nonsense here.
There was an CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) on January 13th, at ~7am UT (2:24 EST is the timing given). This is not, I repeat, NOT a solar flare. They can be associated with a solar flare, but in this case, it is not.
The measurements provided and explained in a press release from NASA show that this CME is earth-directed (so it will have a potential impact on our local space weather), but it is travelling at 275 miles per second. Some basic maths then, as the earth is ~93 million miles from the sun, gives us that it will take about 4 days for the mass that was ejected to reach us.
Therefore, there cannot have been any effects from this particular CME.
Looking at the local space weather ( http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/today.html ) clearly demonstrates that there have been no abnormalities in local space that could possibly have caused such issues today. I considered the possibility of an older CME/flare, but, as the graphs in the link above clearly show, the local (Geostationary orbit ranged) space weather has been reasonably stable over the past few days.
Looking forward, given that the flare would take 4 days, we'd be expecting it on approximately the 17th, and indeed, the forecast ( http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/forecast.html ) does demonstrate an expected increase in activity on the 17th/18th, but this CME is small enough that it is not expected to cause a significant magnetic storm, based upon what has previously happened following similar sized ones.
In summary, whatever happened at your work today was utterly unconnected to any Solar Flares or CMEs.
no subject
There was an CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) on January 13th, at ~7am UT (2:24 EST is the timing given). This is not, I repeat, NOT a solar flare. They can be associated with a solar flare, but in this case, it is not.
The measurements provided and explained in a press release from NASA show that this CME is earth-directed (so it will have a potential impact on our local space weather), but it is travelling at 275 miles per second. Some basic maths then, as the earth is ~93 million miles from the sun, gives us that it will take about 4 days for the mass that was ejected to reach us.
Therefore, there cannot have been any effects from this particular CME.
Looking at the local space weather ( http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/today.html ) clearly demonstrates that there have been no abnormalities in local space that could possibly have caused such issues today. I considered the possibility of an older CME/flare, but, as the graphs in the link above clearly show, the local (Geostationary orbit ranged) space weather has been reasonably stable over the past few days.
Looking forward, given that the flare would take 4 days, we'd be expecting it on approximately the 17th, and indeed, the forecast ( http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/forecast.html ) does demonstrate an expected increase in activity on the 17th/18th, but this CME is small enough that it is not expected to cause a significant magnetic storm, based upon what has previously happened following similar sized ones.
In summary, whatever happened at your work today was utterly unconnected to any Solar Flares or CMEs.