Now we know how a solar storm took out a fleet of Starlinks
by Carolyn Collins, April 3, 2023
"The folks at Starlink found that out the hard way in February 2022. On January 29th that year, the sun belched out a class M 1.1 flare and related coronal mass ejection. Material from the sun traveled out on the solar wind and arrived at Earth a few days later. On February 3, Starlink launched a group of 49 satellites to an altitude only 130 miles above Earth's surface. They didn't last long, and now solar physicists know why."
Failure to harden electrical structures and spent nuclear fuel storage leaves US, global population vulnerable to solar or terrorist induced apocalypse
by Michael Collins, October 14, 2014
"Should a serpentine #CME hit Earth head-on, the consequences would be catastrophic."
Geomagnetic Storm Category G2 (Moderate) predicted for May 10.
Area of impact primarily poleward of 55 degrees Geomagnetic Latitude.
Power grid fluctuations can occur. High-latitude power systems may experience voltage alarms.
Satellite orientation irregularities may occur; increased drag on low Earth-orbit satellites is possible.
HF (high frequency) radio propagation can fade at higher latitudes.
Aurora may be seen as low as New York to Wisconsin to Washington state. #aurora#spaceweather
Nice long-duration M1.7 X-ray flare from active region 3281 (probably; the latest synoptic map has three active regions and one decayed region all in close proximity); given the flare’s location near the center of the disk, any associated CME — and radio sweeps detected by SWPC suggest one is likely — would probably have an Earth-directed component. #solarflare#spaceweather#spacewx