Cameron Leska-Kent
4/15/13
Core Earth Science C
Block
Current Event Report
Cooper-White, Macrina. "Solar Flare, 2013's Most Powerful So Far,
Sparks Radio Blackout, NASA Says (PHOTO)." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 11 Apr. 2013. Web. 15
Apr. 2013.
The largest and most
powerful solar flare of the year erupted form the sun just under a week ago on
Thursday, April 11. This solar flare registered as a mid-level flare on the
scale of solar tempests. A solar flare is defined as being a brief eruption of
high-energy radiation from the sun’s surface. It coincided with a coronal mass ejection
(CME), or a massive burst of solar wind and magnetic fields being released into
space.
NASA has released a
statement confirming that this is the largest solar flare so far in 2013, and
that increasing frequency of flares is expected, as the sun is reaching the end
of its 11 year cycle, which is expected to end in late 2013 with the solar
maximum. A NASA spacecraft captured incredible footage of the solar flare,
showing the wondrous event in great detail.
This solar flare is
classified as an M-class flare. M-class flares are 10 times weaker than the
strongest flares, known as X-class flares. M-class flares are still strong
enough to cause disturbances on Earth such as communications problems and
extraordinary northern lights displays. This solar flare was no exception, as
it caused a short-lived radio communications blackout on Earth.
I think this article is
important because it discusses solar flares and the higher frequency of them
leading up to the solar maximum. The article discusses the possible effects of
solar flares, and this is important because it warns people of possibilities
such as interference with GPS services, communications, and power systems. Knowing
of these threats allows us to be better prepared for them and pushes us to
continue improving our ability to predict and deal with solar flares. Also, it
is interesting to understand more about the processes of the sun as well as the
effects that it can have on Earth. The footage taken of the flare by NASA’s
spacecraft was also awe-inspiring and fascinating.
While this article was
informative about the recent solar flare, there were several ways that it could
be improved. First of all, there was almost no description of why and how solar
flares happen. This would have provided a deeper understanding of solar flares.
Also, the author does not discuss technology used to detect solar flares and
keep track of their frequency. This would have helped the reader understand the
way observation of flares works and see how our ability to prepare for and
predict solar flares may evolve in the near future.
Steven Ircha 5/27/2013
ReplyDeleteEarth Science/Ms. Davies Blog Comment Quarter 4
Wow, this was a very interesting article. I have always been very interested in the solar flare phenomenon and this article gave me some great insight into solar flares. The first thing you did really well was provide a backstory for the information you presented. You did this by telling the reader about a recent solar flare. This idea scares the reader and forces them onwards. Also you constantly compared this solar flare of medium size to others and in a sense provided a great benchmark. So… in other words what you did well was give us a backstory with real life consequences to relate to. A second well present part of this summary was your take on the effects a solar flare could have on us. You used words like GPS, communication devices, and electricity to invoke care in the readers. This was really well done and helped me to realize the severity these solar flare can and will have on us in the future. The third well-presented part of this summary was your brief paragraph at the end. Here you wrote down some of your own questions. These were very thoughtfully picked and actually inspired me to do a little research into the topic myself and I spent a long time reading other works of this author.
Something that interested me in this article was your mentioning of the class system of solar flares. Since the sun is nearing the end of its 11 year cycle the flares should be intense and I imagined this was as bad as it could get. But you brought up that this was only an M class flare, 10 fold less powerful than the worst of its kind the X class. I was shocked that even an M class could cause global radio blackout and I wonder what the X class can do. This little bit of information really caught my attention and kept me reading. Another aspect of your writing that engaged was your description of how scientists know about solar flares. I was very interested in the type of satellites they send into space to take pictures and videos of these events. When doing my own research I was fascinated by the complex processes they use to record data and images of these events. The level of detail recorded is truly fascinating.
While this summary was fantastic I did have one wish. At the end you listed a few questions that the author did not answer. Every reader would have appreciated if you had gone online and looked up a little of that yourself. I did and found some really interesting stuff and hope that in the future you will answer some of these important questions. I wanted to know more about why solar flares happen and examples of some in the past. So in other words a little more background information would have been helpful to receive the full effect of this phenomenon.
Abigail Roesser
ReplyDeleteEarth Science
Comment
Cameron,
I thought that your current event was very interesting. Solar Flares are a very current topic now especially since one just occurred, so it was nice to learn a little bit about them. I liked how you defined solar flare as a “brief eruption of high-energy radiation from the sun’s surface” because it helped the reader to understand the topic of this article. I also found it interesting that this solar flare was the largest solar flare this year. You gave many interesting details to the reader such as that NASA is able to capture footage of these solar flares, which is very interesting.
One thing I that I learned was the way that solar flares are classified. For example, they are classified by M-Class and X- Class. I also learned the that M-class flares are ten times weaker then X-class flares but they can still cause disturbances on Earth. I think you did a great job summarizing the article and you made it easy for the reader to understand without having read the article. I also found it very interesting that this solar flare can affect GPS and radio communication, like this previous one has. I did not think that these flares were such a big deal before reading this article.
One thing I was confused about was when you said, “ the sun is reaching the end of its 11 year cycle”. Maybe you could make it a little more clear of what you are saying to the reach. I agree that the article should discuss reasons that cause the solar flares but one change that you could have made would be to research a little bit more about solar flares to give a little bit more of a backstory to the reader. Overall, you did a great job on your current event report!
Cameron,
ReplyDeleteThis is some solid work. I can tell that you put a lot of effort into this writing. First of all, I had no idea what solar flares were, but in the first paragraph you including a detailed definition of what a solar flare is, which helped guide me through your paper. In addition, I thought you clearly presented to the reader that solar flares can be a serious situation and has the ability to cause harm to society. Lastly, you demonstrated a strong opinion that we must push ourselves to develop new ways to counteract the harms of solar flares. It was clear and concise. The idea that solar flares could affect GPS and other communication devices struck me. Thinking that such a far away phenomena could affect earth life is striking. I also learned that there are different levels of solar flares. This was brought to my attention because there could be a high level solar flare that could cause damage to the earth. One thing you could of done better was add more background information on why solar flares occur and what were solar flares like in the past. Overall, good work.
Your article was very interesting. I did not know that there was any kind of solar flare recently, none the less the most powerful of the year. I thought thought that the NASA commentary about the solar flare was very intreating as well. over all I think that you presented the article very well, it was short and concise. I learned many things about solar flares from your article. I also thought that you had some really good edits for the article in your last paragraph. I think that your article was very well done and doesn't need many edits if any at all.
ReplyDelete