Late update on "The Wrath of Global Scorching w/trailer from Russia w/NO love": NASA spies storm stretching across the Sun

Early Christmas ... for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and the twin STEREO COR1 telescope satellites which have transmitted images that allow for the 1st time, the enabling of the capacity to analyze 12 significant events over a 28-hour period spanning 180 degrees of solar longitude (NASA spies storm stretching across the Sun, 12/15/10).  Whoopee?  Although solar activity has been ramping up for months (see, e.g., NASA/Goddard, Cosmic rays at space age high, 9/9/09), August 1st of this year marked the date of this eye-opening event, eye-opening for astrophysicists anyway.  The rest of you ... try to keep those eyelids from flapping shut.


According to an astrophysicist with top Defense Department contractor, Lockheed-Martin, "We can [now] see that solar storms can be global events, playing out on scales we scarcely imagined before."  These researchers can detect, via the capabilities of SDO/STEREO-COR (lit up after the February orbiting of SDO), the interconnectivity between solar flares as a complex interweaving of magnetic fault zones (sort of like Earth's plate tectonics fault zones), dubbed "separatrices".  So.  1 small step for an SDO/STEREO-COR, 1, uh, small step closer to finding that the same fundamental energy that brought the Earth to life, also makes the Sun the hottest thing in the neighborhood.


Because the Sun is essentially a giant ball of fuel that makes everything in the Solar System go round in gravitationally-bound circles, emitting the heat which potentiates life on an Earth with a molten core, the fact making itself evident, as of August 1, is that the Sun's intense clouds of energetic radiation, the byproducts of the giant ball of fuel belching on occasion, when launched into space, do so en masse, such that the possible havoc to be wreaked on, say, little ol' Earth, is enhanced greatly.  Of course, as noted in "The Wrath ... [etc.]", the magnetic field of the Earth cranks way down on the damage the Sun's blasts of energetic radiation (in solar flares and coronal mass ejections, i.e., belching). 

Since the surveillance of the rather angry old Sol with these advanced tools has been available for only a very short time, astrophysicists have no way of knowing whether what they saw as of August 1st had been going on for multi-millenia, or whether it was a virginal kind of a thing; the magnetic shield normally soaking up the exceedingly adverse effects that would, for instance, pose a serious threat to astronauts and satellites, being mostly outside the invisible magnetic field/shield, would have been unavailing had this happened during the current space age and, therefore, a known previous occurrence.  In the obverse support of this proposed dynamic, scientists who spend their days looking at the dirt wouldn't be able to tell whether such an event ("when almost the entire Earth-facing side of the Sun erupted in a tumult of activity") had ever happened within space age memory either, and for the same reasons provided by the vigilance of the ever-present magnetic guardian.  Of course, downward-gazing scientists might be able to tell if the Earth had been swept by a longlonglongago coronal mass ejection striking the Earth w/its magnetic pants down, but wouldn't be able to determine the strength of that flare.


Astrophysicists are well aware of the dangers of solar radiation because smaller versions of what was observed in August have taken place; it's already known that "[s]olar flares can be particularly hazardous as they disturb high-frequency radio communications and GPS and the disruptions occur very quickly as the dangerous X-rays travel at the speed of light"; however, seeing "entire Earth-facing side of the Sun [erupt] in a tumult of activity" has never happened before.  The point is, relative to the ongoing flipping of the magnetic pole of the Earth (which can last for thousands of years or be more sudden) and the concurrent loss of the magnetic shield, the current spate of flares and coronal mass ejections represents what scientists who dwell on such morbid, worldwide scenarios refer to as "slate-wipers". 

Of course, the folks at Lockheed-Martin aren't just squinting at the Sun for grins/giggles.  Lockheed Martin is involved in the Space Fence (Lockheed Martin, click on Lockheed Martin Submits Bid for Space Fence), a program that will revamp the way the U.S. Air Force identifies and tracks objects in space which will use advanced ground-based radars to provide the Air Force with the capability to track objects, primarily in low-earth orbit, including teeny-tiny satellites (microsatellites) as well as space junk.  L-M's new Space Fence tech is projected to "significantly improve the timeliness with which operators can detect space events which could present potential threats to GPS satellites or the International Space Station."  Or, good ol' mommy Earth.  Space Fence is scheduled to replace the existing Air Force Space Surveillance System, or VHF Fence, which has been in service since the early 1960s.  Betcha didn't know about all that stuff was floating over your head w/much, much more to come, didya?  The L-M website provides an illustration of just how much of their shit's going to be up there soon.
 
Unfortunately, if the magnetic shield is down (think Capt. James T. Kirk, "Deflector shields up, Mr. Sulu."), the Klingons, uh, the Sun will be able to easily penetrate the Earth's natural defenses (forget the artificial fences) with a once-in-a-Creation coronal mass ejection.

Global scorching of the 2nd Kind.