Introduction & Why It Matters
Like other stars, the Sun has natural cycles of periodic explosive flashes, releasing magnetic energy that affects nearby planetary bodies. A solar flash refers to a massive ejection of solar matter (plasma), an event large enough to devastate nearby planets. Other names that refer to the same thing include:
- Micronova
- Superflare
- Solar burst
- Solar outburst
- Stellar nova
- Solar sneeze
- Quantum solar shift
Historical evidence, declassified documents, and whistleblower testimony indicate that the Sun is overdue for a solar flash. As in the past, a solar flash is expected to have dramatic effects on the earth, on technology and communications, and on human DNA and consciousness. Here we highlight the evidence that scientists and researchers have been sharing about previous solar flashes plus their reports of indications for the next one. The information has been provided by researchers to support those who wish to become more educated on this topic. As a result, more people may wish to join a demand for release of suppressed evidence and plans, and to prepare themselves spiritually, mentally and physically for the potential of a consciousness-expanding, life-altering event.
Here in Part 2 you’ll find terminology related to solar activity in general, including the Carrington Event and the 11-year solar cycle.
See Solar Flash Part 1 for more introductory information and Part 3 for evidence that the next solar flash is imminent.
Note
Many people avoid giving attention and energy to issues they perceive as not affecting them or as beyond their control. That’s a crucial and effective strategy that preserves our energy for things we love and that we can directly impact. Topics such as the ones on this site may seem to fall within the dark underbelly of society, beyond our actual daily lives and our influence.
However, the subjects on this site have been chosen because the evidence demonstrates that they are, in fact, widely influential and impact our daily lives. In other words, nothing here is presented just because “you should be aware.” Rather, these typically hidden subjects are brought to light, bringing more awareness to how we can dismantle dysfunctional systems and replace them with healthy, sustainable solutions. By making informed choices and by joining with others, we can create positive change that will uplift and empower the many good people seeking to improve our world.
Solar Activity: Basic Terminology
- Neutrinos — “Nearly mass-less particles that blast out from the Sun as part of the fusion reactions.” (Universe Today)
- Solar Winds — The corona’s high temperature causes its particles to move at speeds so high that they can escape the Sun’s gravity. The energetic particles blasting off the surface of the Sun are called solar winds. (NASA)
- Solar Prominence — A red-glowing eruption of plasma, anchored to the Sun’s surface and extending outward into the corona. A prominence “forms over about a day, and stable prominences may persist in the corona for several months, looping hundreds of thousands of miles into space.” (NASA)
- Solar Flares — Explosive release of magnetic energy causing a sudden flash of light. The frequency of solar flares follows an 11-year solar cycle. “Flares can last minutes to hours… Traveling at the speed of light, it takes eight minutes for the light from a solar flare to reach Earth. Some of the energy released in the flare also accelerates very high energy particles that can reach Earth in tens of minutes.” (NASA)
- Geomagnetic Storm / Solar Storm — Called either a geomagnetic storm or solar storm, the result is a temporary disturbances of the planet’s magnetic field. (Phys.org) Bursts of energy coming from the Sun send a stream of electrical charges and magnetic fields toward the Earth at a speed of about three million miles per hour. May result in Northern Lights displays and can disrupt satellites and electronic communications. “At times of peak activity, there could be several solar storms each day. At other times, there might be less than one solar storm per week.” (Wonderopolis)
- Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) — Streams of charged plasma. When CMEs hit the Earth, they can cause geomagnetic storms that disrupt satellites and electrical power grids. “A CME is like a cannonball, propelled forward in a single, preferential direction… affecting a targeted area…. Traveling over a million miles per hour, the hot material called plasma takes up to three days to reach Earth.” (NASA)
- The Carrington Event — Name given to a geomagnetic storm in 1859. ” Telegraph communications around the world began to fail; there were reports of sparks showering from telegraph machines, shocking operators and setting papers ablaze. All over the planet, colorful auroras illuminated the nighttime skies, glowing so brightly that birds began to chirp and laborers started their daily chores, believing the sun had begun rising. Some thought the end of the world was at hand, but… [it was due to] a massive solar flare with the energy of 10 billion atomic bombs. The flare spewed electrified gas and subatomic particles toward Earth, and the resulting geomagnetic storm… was the largest on record to have struck the planet.” (History.com)
- Nova / Supernova — A nova is an explosion near the end of a star’s life. A supernova is the name given when a very large star collapses. (Space Answers)
- Solar Flash / Micronova / Superflare — A massive ejection of solar matter (plasma), an event large enough to devastate nearby planets. (Dr. Michael Salla) Other terms that are used to mean the same thing include solar burst, solar outburst, solar sneeze, and quantum solar shift. See much more in Part 3: Evidence of Solar Flash & Pole Shift.
Daily Solar Activity & Severe Weather Reporting
This is an example of the daily reporting on SuspiciousObservers.org, an online research community investigating solar activity, earthquakes, astrophysics and weather. This is a 6-minute summary for April 18th, 2019.
Solar Cycles
- Sunspots — Temporary dark marks on the Sun’s surface where magnetic field lines pierce the surface. “These short-lived patches… act as indicators of the sun’s activity… and sometimes erupt into powerful solar storms that shoot streams of charged particles into space.” (Live Science) The Sun is typically very active when sunspot counts are high. (UCAR) “Above sunspots you have complex structures that trigger dynamic phenomenon, eruptions that are like volcanoes. Those eruptions can impact our Earth.” (Solar physicist, University of Montreal)
- 11-Year Solar Cycle — Also called the Sunspot Cycle. Refers to the fact that the Sun’s north and south magnetic poles flip every 11 years on average. (The Sun Today) Since the year 1700, the cycle length has varied from nine to 14 years. (UCAR)
- 22-Year Solar Cycle — The 11-year cycle is half of a 22-year cycle of solar activity. After two 11-year cycles, the magnetic fields return to the way they were at the start of the cycle.
- Solar Minimum & Solar Maximum — When solar activity is low, it is known as solar minimum, and when activity is high, it is known as solar maximum. “As the sun nears solar maximum and its activity cycle ramps up, its surface gets covered in sunspots.” (The New York Times) When the Sun’s magnetic energy increases, there is an increase in solar flares, sunspots and plages. (Stanford University) (plage = bright region in chromospere)
- Nova / Supernova — A nova is an explosion near the end of a star’s life. A supernova is the name given when a very large star collapses. (Space Answers)
- Solar Flash / Micronova / Superflare — A massive ejection of solar matter (plasma), an event large enough to devastate nearby planets. (Dr. Michael Salla) Other terms that are used to mean the same thing include superflare, solar burst, solar outburst, solar sneeze, and quantum solar shift. See much more in Part 3: Evidence of Solar Flash & Pole Shift.
1-min: Summary of Magnetic Field Changes & Solar Cycle
Readings
Plasma Events are Difficult to Comprehend and to Research
The concept of a big chunk of rock or ice from outer space — a meteor, comet, or asteroid — colliding with Earth is easy to grasp. But plasma? Plasma is not necessarily readily familiar to the average person… Plasma events can occur over short periods of time, probably measured in days, weeks, and months. Such short-term events may be extremely difficult to identify hundreds and thousands of years later.
– Dr. Robert M. Schoch
The Drama Surrounding a 1967 Solar Storm
On May 23, 1967, the geostorm disrupted the radars at all three stations of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System: the Cape Cod Air Force Station (Massachusetts), Beale Air Force Base (California) and Clear Air Force Station (Alaska). Local commanders of the airfields, fearing a possible Soviet attack, ordered nuclear weapons ready to launch. Because all stations were being jammed at the same time and during daylight, researchers at NORAD realized the Sun, not the Soviets, were interfering with the radar stations. That information made it to commanders in time to stop the airplanes, but the military realized the urgent importance of monitoring space weather. The geomagnetic storm of 1967 was exceptionally powerful – the eighth largest on record. It disrupted U.S. radio communications for almost a week. Northern Lights, caused by the energy coming from the sun and ionizing atoms in Earth’s atmosphere, usually only seen in or near the Arctic Circle, were visible as far south as New Mexico.
– David Bressan
The Solar Cycle
This rise and fall in sunspot counts varies in a cyclical way; the length of the cycle is around eleven years on average. The cyclical variation in sunspot counts, discovered in 1843 by the amateur German astronomer Samuel Heinrich Schwabe, is called “the Sunspot Cycle.” … An example of a recent sunspot cycle spans the years from the solar min in 1986, when 13 sunspots were seen, through the solar max in 1989 when more than 157 sunspots appeared, on to the next solar min in 1996 (ten years after the 1986 solar min) when the sunspot count had fallen back down to fewer than 9. Along with the number of sunspots, the location of sunspots varies throughout the sunspot cycle. At solar min, sunspots tend to form around latitudes of 30° to 45° North and South of the Sun’s equator. As the solar cycle progresses through solar max, sunspots tend to appear closer to the equator, around a latitude of 15°. Towards the end of a cycle, with solar min once again approaching, sunspots form quite close to the solar equator, around 7° North and South latitude. There is often an overlap in this latitudinal migration trend around solar min, when sunspots of the outgoing cycle are forming at low latitudes and sunspots of the upcoming cycle begin to form at high latitudes once again. This gradual equatorward drift of sunspots throughout the sunspot cycle, which was first noticed in the early 1860’s by the German astronomer Gustav Spörer and the Englishman Richard Christopher Carrington, is often called Spörer’s Law.
– UCAR: University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Solar Flares vs CMEs
Solar flares and coronal mass ejections both involve gigantic explosions of energy, but are otherwise quite different. The two phenomena do sometimes occur at the same time – indeed the strongest flares are almost always correlated with coronal mass ejections – but they emit different things, they look and travel differently, and they have different effects near planets. Both eruptions are created when the motion of the sun’s interior contorts its own magnetic fields… The differences between the two types of explosions can be seen through solar telescopes, with flares appearing as a bright light and CMEs appearing as enormous fans of gas swelling into space. Flares and CMEs have different effects at Earth as well. The energy from a flare can disrupt the area of the atmosphere through which radio waves travel. This can lead to degradation and, at worst, temporary blackouts in navigation and communications signals. On the other hand, CMEs can funnel particles into near-Earth space. A CME can jostle Earth’s magnetic fields creating currents that drive particles down toward Earth’s poles. When these react with oxygen and nitrogen, they help create the aurora, also known as the Northern and Southern Lights. Additionally, the magnetic changes can affect a variety of human technologies. High frequency radio waves can be degraded: Radios transmit static, and GPS coordinates stray by a few yards. The magnetic oscillations can also create electrical currents in utility grids on Earth that can overload electrical systems when power companies are not prepared.
– NASA
The Corona Temperature Increases
In a study published Friday in the journal Science Advances, Dr. Morgan found that when the sun is at solar minimum, the quiet corona measures around 1.4 million degrees Celsius. But at solar maximum it jumps to around 1.8 million degrees. Dr. Morgan said he was not sure why the entire corona, including the areas not above a sunspot, heat up as the sun’s activity increases.
– Unlocking Mysteries in the Sun’s 11-Year Cycle
The Sun’s Magnetic Field “Creeps” Toward Poles, Leading to Pole Change
The sun’s magnetic field is generated by a complex process inside the sun called the solar dynamo. The magnetic field starts off as basically up and down, i.e. roughly straight lines between the north and south poles… The sun takes about 25 days to make a complete rotation at the equator and about 35 days at the north or south pole. The sun is made up of a type of material called plasma and plasmas are magnetic. This means the plasma drags the magnetic field with it over time as it is rotating. The field gets all twisted (like a twisted rubber band) and eventually floats to the visible surface of the sun (photosphere). The magnetic field comes through the photosphere in concentrated regions called sunspots. At the same time these concentrations of magnetic field slowly creep towards the north or south pole. The magnetic fields are primarily one polarity in the north and the opposite in the south. The fields that creep towards the poles are opposite polarity to the fields at the poles. The strength of the magnetic field at each pole slowly reduces to zero until it switches polarity. The switch happens around the peak of solar activity or the time we call solar maximum.
– The Sun Today
Effects of Solar Storms on Technology
Solar weather events, such as solar flares and solar wind storms, occur when blazing-hot, supercharged particles of energy blast out of the sun’s surface and whiz across space on a collision course toward Earth…That surge of charged particles can garble radio signals, fry satellite and spacecraft instruments, and overload circuit breakers to take down entire power grids. That’s exactly what happened on March 13, 1989, when a massive solar storm crackled through the atmosphere and knocked the power out in Quebec, Canada, for 9 hours. An earlier, even larger solar storm in 1859, known as the Carrington event, reportedly caused telegraph wires to short-circuit all around the United States, throwing off sparks that started fires and electrocuted office workers.
– Livescience.com
Flares & CMEs in 2003
A solar explosion that took place in 1859, known today as the “Carrington Event,” is used as a benchmark for a catastrophic “space weather” incident that could have serious consequences for today’s mobile phone, internet and satellite communications and also for the world’s electricity supplies… It was one of the most powerful solar explosions ever recorded. The largest flare of modern times occurred on 4 November 2003. This originated in a complex sunspot group similar to the one that caused the Carrington flare. Across much of its passage across the Sun the previous two weeks, the 2003 sunspot had been unleashing many flares and CMEs. These had not only sparked powerful aurorae: the magnetic effects caused damage to communications satellites and some airlines flying near the arctic regions had to be re-routed, due to dangerous radiation levels in the upper atmosphere… When the most powerful flare took place, the parent sunspot was moving off the Sun’s visible disc and the resulting CME was directed at 90 degrees to the Earth. Had it traveled directly towards the Earth, its consequences for communications systems and transport could have been devastating.
– Solar Stormwatch Blog
The Damage to Power Grid “Unimaginable”
The Carrington Event is remembered as the largest geomagnetic storm in the history of recorded space weather. No other storm has matched it in speed or magnitude. But that doesn’t mean we’re not preparing for the inevitability… the stakes are exponentially higher in a modern, hyper-connected world… The widespread damage to North America’s power grid would be unimaginable… Transformers, which are extremely expensive to build, make power transmission possible. But when a CME sweeps across Earth, these towers, designed to handle AC currents, are instead flooded with DC currents. This may cause them to overheat, melt, or even explode as was the case in 1989 in Quebec, Canada.
– Motherboard
26-sec: Solar Cycle Magnetic Field Shift
Sources & Resources
See here for a list of sources and resources for the entire Solar Flash section.
