THE SOLAR STORMS ARE HERE!

Rise Earth, a website that more often than not tries to whip up some phony-baloney hysteria about something strange or unknown or weird, issued an email feed on January 24 proclaiming:

“NASA Earth Observatory has confirmed with imagery courtesy of Solar Dynamics Observatory, that the largest solar storm since 2005 has just been unleashed from the sun. Reports are circulating the news wires and the internet on the possible repercussions of such an event. We highly recommend that you make sure your emergency preparations plans are in order. Scientists really have no idea what will happen to the Earth, but our job as parents, and concerned loved ones is to have our preparation plans in order.”

Let’s all panic because you remember back in 2005 when we all burned to death, right? No, wait, that didn’t happen, did it?

Rise Earth loves to make mountains out of mole hills.

In reality, as I posted here in December, NASA scientists have frequently pointed out that the sun, 93 millions miles away from earth, does not have enough energy to send a solar flare rocketing through the vacuum of space and incinerating us.

NASA Earth Observatory issued this statement: “Following one of the longest and weakest periods of activity in many cycles, the Sun is brimming with activity again. In late January 2012, our nearest star offered a preview of what may be to come in the solar maximum of 2012–13. The storm has the potential to disrupt some communications and satellite systems and to bring auroras to high-latitude skies.”

And as for a flare traveling from the sun to us:

“The flare itself was nothing spectacular, but it sent off a very fast coronal mass ejection traveling four million miles per hour (6.4 million kilometers per hour).”

I’m not sure what “preparation plans” we need to handle the current solar storm. Satellite transmission may get messed up and, if you’re like me and have satellite TV, it could be really annoying and I suppose the Pentagon and cell phone companies are concerned about disruptions, but, really, we’ve been here before and we’ll be here again. The sun has been blazing away for a long time and will continue to blaze away long after we’re gone.