Flare Up

I've got the radio on yesterday, and I'm ticked I can't clearly hear the NPR story that's playing.  WNYC at 93.9 on the spectrum, always comes in clean and strong.  The fact that I'm hearing regular bursts of other broadcasts coming through means something new has happened.   As I listen on, trying to parse the now hard-to-decipher audio, part of my mind muses on what could be the cause.

Maybe a powerful new station has commenced broadcasting on a neighboring frequency in the last 24 hours.  This kind of direct blow to the livelihood of a major enterprise like WNYC doesn't seem likely to happen ex-nihilo.

Maybe there's some weird weather somewhere messing with the radio spectrum, like the crazy lightning storms we had in VT.

Turns out what happened was reminder of the tenuous nature of our seemingly routine existence. Due to the fact we all live next to insanely huge and chaotic nuclear monster called the Sun, which is thankfully held in thrall by gravity, but sometimes quietly wiggles it's little toe and says "look what I can do if I wanted to".

It was a giant solar flare.

From today's WIRED SCIENCE blog:

At 12:11 p.m. EDT, the flare began unleashing about a billion hydrogen bombs’ worth of energy. Radiation temporarily jammed some radio frequencies for about an hour.

Source: weather.com via Weather on Pinterest

I am thankful that Earth's thick atmosphere offer's so much protection that exposure to "a billion hydrogen bombs worth of energy" only results in some small frustration with the normally reliable reception of my favorite radio station.  But at the same time, even though it ranks a 1 on a scale of 1-10, the Sun flared up and effed with our planet.  And effed with me.  I don't wan't to see how much worse it could get if Sol decided to get a little more frisky.

The primitive in me cowers at how nakedly we seem to be exposed to
the Sun immensely powerful and God-like vicissitudes.

Universe
"Jim, we've got something unusual for you today.  You've going to be

hit with one billion hydrogen bomb explosion from your local star."

Me

"Great. I will get ready to be dead."

Uni

"Not so fast.  I'm giving you some tools to protect yourself.  First, you'll have distance "

Me

"Well, if it were one hydrogen bomb, I'd want to be at least 10 miles 
away.  So for 1 billion hydrogen bombs I'd want to be...a lot of miles away"

Uni
"You'll have 93 million miles."

Me
"Not bad, but the math doesn't work.  I believe I will still be toast." 

Uni
"There is no air pressure in space, so don't worry about a blast wave; 
it's more about the electro-magnetic energy that can scramble the 
atoms in your body.   For that you have a gigantic magnetic field to 
deflect the energy.  Also, there's a huge sea of air around you which 
will help absorb any effects.  

It's just like a little rain on a big transparent umbrella."



Me
"So with all that, what will I feel from the one billion bombs?"


Uni
"You will feel nothing.   But nice clean radio waves in the air will get 
bounced around a bit, which means your atoms also got touched below 
the threshhold of feeling."


Me
"Still, that's a good day for me.  The Sun can't get me with one billion 
bombs.   What is the most billion bombs the Sun can ever throw out?   
What is the most billion bombs the invisible umbrella can stop?"