Space Weather

GavH
GavH Posts: 933
edited February 2010 in The bottom bracket
Seen this today and wondered if my 705 will soon be as useful as I thought it was:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8494225.stm

In short, increased activity from the Sun is expected to wreak havoc with the GPS system, but on a brighter note, make the Northern Lights a bit more spectacular. :roll:

Comments

  • freehub
    freehub Posts: 4,257
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/hig ... 510377.stm
    Tourism staff have been asked in the past when the "lights were turned on".

    :lol:
  • Cressers
    Cressers Posts: 1,329
    Really? I thought that our recent bout of global cooling was in part due to a decrease in solar activity which has been very low recently...
  • on the road
    on the road Posts: 5,631
    The chances of sat-navs being knocked out are rare. For a solar flare to reach us it has to be in the middle of the suns surface, and the sun is quite large. Sometimes there's a large solar flare on the sun but just off centre, so it misses the earth altogether.

    And even if a flare does reach us, it would be very unfortunate if a satellite got struck by it. There have been flares in the past but you hardly ever hear of satellites going down, not to say it will never happen but it would be very rare.

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