Maru (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
yakalskovich) wrote2013-01-15 08:02 pm
yakalskovich) wrote2013-01-15 08:02 pm
Entry tags:
First rule of being a bitch
... be totally unpredictable!
So, today we had one of the biggest solar flares in months, an M-class one that made an actual DENT in the Earth's magnetic field this noon my time -- according to my friend and colleague who used to be 'japanologist' on LJ but didn't come with to Dreamwidth, as his personal blog is on tumblr anyway -- I digress.
Anyway, solar flare.
Quite a number of computers at our work was going crazy around noon that time, and he was all 'WHY THE FECKING HELL DO ALL THE COMPUTERS CONK OUT AT ME TODAY!!11??!!!elebenty-one!?!???!!!' complete with the allcaps for a bit, and then he found out about increased sunspots and flares in 2013, and there having been a big one just now.
So, knowing my iffy electronics, I was worried that my psychotic miccrowave might really have bought it this time (the software on the embedded system it contains sometimes spontaneously goes random, and then the microwave does strange thing until it suddenly decides it had enough and turns back to normal), and the dreaded Alice, who keels over at the slightest provocation, would probably drop her pants at once and not get up again properly for the rest of the week.
Well, nothing of the sort happened.
When I got home, they were both fine and dandy; nothing to see here.
Real randomness includes spontaneously not malfunctioning when there is a great good reason to, it seems.
So, today we had one of the biggest solar flares in months, an M-class one that made an actual DENT in the Earth's magnetic field this noon my time -- according to my friend and colleague who used to be 'japanologist' on LJ but didn't come with to Dreamwidth, as his personal blog is on tumblr anyway -- I digress.
Anyway, solar flare.
Quite a number of computers at our work was going crazy around noon that time, and he was all 'WHY THE FECKING HELL DO ALL THE COMPUTERS CONK OUT AT ME TODAY!!11??!!!elebenty-one!?!???!!!' complete with the allcaps for a bit, and then he found out about increased sunspots and flares in 2013, and there having been a big one just now.
So, knowing my iffy electronics, I was worried that my psychotic miccrowave might really have bought it this time (the software on the embedded system it contains sometimes spontaneously goes random, and then the microwave does strange thing until it suddenly decides it had enough and turns back to normal), and the dreaded Alice, who keels over at the slightest provocation, would probably drop her pants at once and not get up again properly for the rest of the week.
Well, nothing of the sort happened.
When I got home, they were both fine and dandy; nothing to see here.
Real randomness includes spontaneously not malfunctioning when there is a great good reason to, it seems.
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.