But if we’re observing the visible light from the flares on earth, wouldn’t that mean the other electromagnetic interference has also arrived? Or is the interference caused by heavier radiation particles? Actually curious - I assumed that satellite to ground transmissions would be light or radio-based and therefore not affected by heavy radiation, only EM (which travels at the speed of light)…
OK, I had to Google it. Turns out radio blackouts with satellite comm systems to happen simultaneous with the Flare being observed. The intense EM radiation basically ionizes part of the ionosohere, causing the radio signals to be absorbed. So we WOULD expect potential disruption to comms as soon as the Flare was observed.
I don’t know, I feel pretty strongly that they’re linked. Clearly the cell phone outage caused the solar flares.
Solar flares take 36-48 hours to reach Earth.
it takes eight minutes for cell signals to reach the sun
But if we’re observing the visible light from the flares on earth, wouldn’t that mean the other electromagnetic interference has also arrived? Or is the interference caused by heavier radiation particles? Actually curious - I assumed that satellite to ground transmissions would be light or radio-based and therefore not affected by heavy radiation, only EM (which travels at the speed of light)…
Removed by mod
OK, I had to Google it. Turns out radio blackouts with satellite comm systems to happen simultaneous with the Flare being observed. The intense EM radiation basically ionizes part of the ionosohere, causing the radio signals to be absorbed. So we WOULD expect potential disruption to comms as soon as the Flare was observed.
Source
Ah, the ol’ RedHH^H Lemmy switcharoo!