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This si a weird topic, but the movie "Knowing" is what got me interested in learning about space weather. If y'all have watched the movie, you know it ends with the Earth being destroyed by a Superflare. Now, I've heard some people say the Sun CAN produce a similar superflare, but some also say it's not possible for our Sun to do that either. Does anyone know if a Superflare like the one in "Knowing" is possible from our Sun... or what would be needed for that to happen?

Hi all, its been a while since I've posted. I was planning to follow up on this post once the 2022 paper had released... but that date has come and gone and it still isn't available 😅. Either way, a paper has recently come out with a new estimate for the size of the Carrington Event, reclassifying it as an ~X80 flare. However, as the paper itself mentions, this is using the new post-2017 GOES scale, which is 1.43 times higher. So in relation to all flares listed on this site (before 2018), it would be classified as an ~X56. After finishing the paper, I was reminded of this graph; 2022, and 2023 (so far) look noticeably abnormal. The flare counts are way higher relative to their mean sunspot number when compared to prior years. I decided to multiply the number of flares in each class by 1.43 for the years 1997-2017, to get an approximate look at the new scaling system (Since the number of X-class flares is low, I converted each individually to get the number): Sure enough, 2022 ended up looking more analogous to 2011 or 2015. On the other hand, 2023 looks on track to be in a similar realm to 2014, if it maintains the activity it had for most of this year. An easy way to find out which flares on this site will go up a class, is to see which ones are >= 7 (since 7 x 1.43 = 10.01), eg; M7 -> X1. Things get more interesting when taking a look at the X-class flares. 2022 is similar to 2011 in that they were both the first year of their respective cycle where the number of flares picked up. They both possess a similar number of smaller x flares, but 2011 has twice the total x flares when including all its higher end flares. As for 2014 (which is a peak), and 2023 (which looks like a peak), at the rate this year is going, while the number of small x flares is catching up, the amount of large x flares does not look like it'll reach the level of 2014. So my question is this; where are the high end X-class flares? My best guess is that (as I read somewhere), all the big ones have been getting "stage fright" and firing off on the other side of the sun 😂. Any thoughts? This turned into something else as i was typing, i should have put it in solar activity. 😅

Hey folks!! I wanted to bring up a topic wondering what your opinion is on such!! During the Carrington events here on earth. The telegraph machines and cables where exposed raw conducting materials! For example the older electrical systems called knob and tube wiring! Would actually expose the conducting materials to open air. Meaning if there was a energy vibrational surge to such an extent, the outer fields would come in direct contact with each other as the energy expanded surrounding the conducting materials. Once these energies collide we get sparks!! In our modern era, we insulated jackets around all conducting materials transporting electricity! Hypothesizing that the insulated jackets require around all materials transporting electrical energy would be sufficient to suppress the sparks that were recorded from the Carrington event! Although in our electrical panels we have circuit breakers where exposed conducting materials are located in a open un insulated fashion! The danger comes from those connecting sources like outlet plugs and panels! If those connections sources were completely separated and fully insulated prevent an excess of energy expanding outside the insulated jacket. We shouldn't have the same concerns of immediate global fires! With smoke so thick choking out this world and creating a new ice age?? I wanted to share this with the community hopefully a solution can be found! Helping Protect the advancement of civilization! Cheers!