Solar Storm – a Potential Threat to Humanity
A solar storm refers to space weather involving solar activities like solar flares and coronal mass ejection. Although most solar storms may only have minor effect on the Earth, a particularly strong one like the 1859 Carrington Event is likely to cause damage of spacecraft and satellites, as well as radio and electricity blackout of large regions on the Earth. In the age that people’s lives are greatly dependent on electronic and telecommunication technologies, our modern civilization is under a constant threat posed by a hazardous solar storm. This paper will examine a few past solar storm observations and attempt to analyze the effects of the major components of solar storms on human technologies and people’s lives.
A solar storm in general consists of three major kinds of solar activities – solar flares, solar proton events (SPE), and coronal mass ejection (CME) (Marusek 2007). These solar activities, sometimes happening together, can affect the Earth in various ways.
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When a solar flare occurs, vast amount of magnetic energy get released and turned into electromagnetic radiation. (NASA 2015) Traveling at light-speed, the resulting radiation containing X-ray, extreme ultraviolet rays, gamma rays and radio waves would arrive at Earth after only 8 minutes. The x-rays may interact with the atoms in the ionosphere of Earth and cause a sudden increase in ionization, which could interfere radar and shortwave radio communication. The ultraviolet rays can heat the upper atmosphere, causing the atmosphere shell to expand, which may drag low orbiting satellites and spacecraft, leading to unexpected orbital changes (Marusek 2007). For instance, the premature demise of the Solar Maximum Mission in 1990 and Skylab in 1979 are due to this phenomenon (Odenwald
In literature, symbolism is used to give meaning to certain things throughout a story that are different than their literal sense. Symbolism also gives the writer freedom to add a deeper meaning to their work. The storm that took place in Kate Chopin’s story, The Storm, is used to symbolize getting Alcee and Calixta back together, the passion between the two of them, and to keep Bobinot and Bibi from returning to the gallery to find Alcee and Calixta.
Solar energy is energy taken from the light that reaches earth's surface from the sun. There are four different kinds of solar energy, which are active solar systems, passive solar systems, photovoltaic cells and concentrating power systems. An active solar systems is a system that captures solar energy by mechanical means. Common active solar systems are often in buildings or homes. Some examples are roof collectors and water heating. Low Intensity and high variability have limited the use of active solar energy in Canada. A pass...
middle of paper ... ... Solar Storm is a story where two cultures are drawn into conflict over environmental recourses in order to persevere in their way of life. Two views tend to clash, one a view of Eco criticism while the other is in denial. In order to secure their survival, they will stop at nothing.
Storm of Steel provides a memoir of the savagery and periods of beauty that Ernst Jünger’s experienced while serving the German army during the First World War. Though the account does not take a clear stand, it lacks any embedded emotional effects or horrors of the Great War that left so few soldiers who survived unaffected. Jünger is very straightforward and does remorse over any of his recollections. The darkness of the hallucinations Jünger reports to have experienced provides subtle anti-war sentiment. However, in light of the descriptive adventures he sought during the brief moments of peace, the darkness seems to be rationalized as a sacrifice any soldier would make for duty and honor in a vain attempt for his nation’s victory. The overall lack of darkness and Jünger’s nonchalance about the brutality of war is enough to conclude that the account in Storm of Steel should be interpreted as a “pro” war novel; however, it should not be interpreted as “pro” violence or death.
People did many things to prepare for Hurricane Sandy. Many people who lived on or near the coastline were given evacuation orders by government officials. These areas were likely to experience severe flooding. The people who lived in low elevations along the coast were particularly in danger. These people left their homes in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut; some were fortunate enough to find a hotel to stay in or relatives to stay with. Others who weren’t as fortunate waited in community shelters. Organizations such as the American Red Cross opened shelters specifically for people who had to leave their homes because of Hurricane Sandy.
An ordinary-single cell is the most common, but multicell and supercells are responsible for the severe thunderstorms. The ordinary single-cell thunderstorms are short lived with three stages: the cumulus, the mature, and the dissipating stages. In the last stage, it eliminates the upward supply of high humidity air needed to maintain a thunderstorm. On the other hand, multicell storms are composed of severe individual single-cell storms that can make storms last for several hours. There is dense, cold air of the downdraft that forms the gust front which forms new cells. Then, groups of these thunderstorms tend to join into larger systems referred to as mesoscale convective
'I saw dancing lights in the sky, spiking straight up starting around a few hundred feet off the ground. They waved a bit like curtains’-Mike Taylor. The Aurora Borealis is a display of solar flares that collide with the earth's atmosphere and cause a phenomenal light show, but do the impact of the solar flares affect the earth in any way? If so, is it a positive or negative reaction? Solar flares are also known as space weather. It is said in many research papers that space weather has a long term effect on the earth's atmosphere. If space weather truly does have negative long term effects on the earth’s atmosphere, then the planet might become uninhabitable for any life considering that all living organisms except bacteria and related bacteria life survive on oxygen. The long term effects of space weather in relation to the earths atmosphere will be discussed and based on facts, opinions, and scientific evidence.
Stars are luminous spheres that have been around longer than humans. In fact, it has been said that, “We are a way for the universe to know itself. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return. And we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We're made of star stuff.” [1] Just like any other animate object, stars also go through a life cycle. They grow up, live their life, and slowly but surely die out. Stars can live for billions and even trillions of years. The life span of a star depends on how fast or how slow they use up and burn their nuclear fuel. The size of the star also determines the longevity.
Today many patterns including real estate sales to fluctuations in the climate have been attributed to the cycle of sunspots. These fluctuations may be an explanation of the decline of Sun worship in India due the increased sunspot activity during the time of the Medieval Maximum. Throughtout history these fluctuations have been omens (e.g. a slave revolutionists incited a riot when he interpreted the site of a large black area on the Sun as the black taking over the white) (Schaefer 38). There are also modern examples of solar fluctuations affecting the Earth like the delayed launch of the Hubble Telescope (Schaefer 38) and the disruptions in electrical and radio technology during solar flares due to increased activity of sunspots at the last solar maximum in 1989.
Hurricane Sandy, nicknamed “Superstorm Sandy,” struck the New Jersey area on October 29, 2012. Over 1,000 miles in diameter, the hurricane was the largest Atlantic tropical storm in history, and the second costliest hurricane in United States history, following Hurricane Katrina. In preparation for the hurricane, Federal, State and City authorities moved into emergency mode as the storm approached. On Sunday, October 28, 2012 President Obama declared a state of emergency in several states across the east cost, including New Jersey. This allowed federal support to become available, allowing FEMA to provide resources directly to state and local governments, as well as allowing states to request funding for actions before Sandy’s landfall. The National Guard positioned more than 61,000 personnel along the east coast, FEMA positioned more than 1,500 personnel, and the American Red Cross provided disaster response workers and shelters in communities. Amtrak canceled certain branches and services for October 29 and 30th, and more than 13,000 flights were cancelled on October 29th. To avoid casualties, Gov. Chris Christie declared a state of emergency in New Jersey, ordered evacuations of NJ barrier islands from Sandy Hook South to Cape May by Sunday, October 28th at 4pm as well as closing all state offices for that Monday. On October 28, Mayor of Hoboken Dawn Zimmer ordered residents of basement and street level residence units to evacuate due to possible flooding. On October 29 residents of Logan Township were ordered to evacuate as well.
In 1910, Arthur Eddington, a British Astrophysicist, discovered solar winds. Solar winds are basically a continuous flow (they are never ending basically) of particles from the sun. They are also known as stellar winds. Their usual way out of the sun is the coronal holes. Their main cause is an expansion of gases in the corona, which is the outer layer of the sun. The idea that the corona is plasma was thought of by Richard C. Carrington. The temperature of the corona is 2,200,000 degrees Celsius. It is so hot that not even the sun’s gravity can contain it. It heats gases and makes them expand. The gas items run into each other as they are heated. As a result, they lose their electrons. Then, the atoms become ions with a positive charge, the electrons and ions (which are mostly Hydrogen ions) make up the solar wind. The velocity of solar winds goes from 250 to 1000 kilometers every second. It has a density of 82 ions for every cubic inch, or 5 ions per cubic centimeter. Solar winds are the cause of many occurrences in the solar system like Mercury having no atmosphere, and Venus’ acidic, radiation filled clouds. They are also known as electrically charged hurricanes.
A tropical cyclone is a warm-core, low-pressure system producing high winds that spiral counter-clockwise (in the northern hemisphere) and inward, with the highest winds near the center of circulation. The large counter-clockwise and inward flow is characteristic of the nearly symmetric structure of tropical cyclones as they are comprised of rain bands spiraling toward the center. These warm-core storms typically form over the tropical and subtropical oceans and extract their energy from the heat content of the oceans.
Ever since the beginning of time there have been stars. Not only stars in the sky, but moons, planets, and even galaxies! Astronomy is defined as the branch of science that deals with celestial objects, space, and the physical universe as a whole. In other words it is the study of space, planets, and stars. Throughout the ages, many people have used astronomy to help them learn about the universe, our own planet, and even make predictions about life itself. Understanding astronomy means understanding where it originated, the different groups/cultures that used it, and modern purposes of the science of the stars.
The Earth captures around 342 W/m2 of energy from the sun. This energy is in the form of solar radiation, which the atmosphere reflects about 77 W/m2 and will absorb around 68 W/m2 of solar radiation annually. Therefore, the Earth’s surface is receiving, on average, about 197 W/m2 of solar radiation annually. This amount of energy received is roughly more than 10,000 times the amount of all energy humans consume per year. This energy can be used to produce electricity or heat. This energy source is not being used to it’s potential considering how much effort would come into effect to store and transport this energy.
A tornado is defined as a violently rotating column extending from a thunderstorm to the ground. The most violent tornadoes are capable of tremendous destruction with wind speeds of two hundred and fifty miles per hour or more. Damage paths can be more than one mile wide and fifty miles long. In an average year, eight hundred tornadoes are reported nationwide, resulting in eighty deaths and over one thousand five hundred injuries. In the body of my essay, I will tell you about types of tornadoes, where tornadoes come from, where and when tornadoes occur, the damage they inflict, variations of tornadoes, and how to detect tornadoes.