Strongest Solar Storm Since 2005 Hitting Earth right now

• http://news.yahoo.com/strongest-solar-storm-since-2005-hitting-earth-163628746.html
• This colorized NASA image, taken Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, from the Solar Dynamics Observatory, …
• This handout image provided by NASA, taken Sunday night, Jan. 22, 2012, shows a solar …

WASHINGTON (AP) — The sun is bombarding Earth with radiation from the biggest solar storm in more than six years with more to come from the fast-moving eruption.

The solar flare occurred at about 11 p.m. EST Sunday and will hit Earth with three different effects at three different times. The biggest issue is radiation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado.

The radiation is mostly a concern for satellite disruptions and astronauts in space. It can cause communication problems for polar-traveling airplanes, said space weather center physicist Doug Biesecker.

Radiation from Sunday's flare arrived at Earth an hour later and will likely continue through Wednesday. Levels are considered strong but other storms have been more severe. There are two higher levels of radiation on NOAA's storm scale — severe and extreme — Biesecker said. Still, this storm is the strongest for radiation since May 2005. end quote.

Radiation like this can take the form of static electricity and since Satellites operate with computers chips at very low voltage this could affect both programming and actions of satellites. However, most people's lives don't depend upon most satellites unless they are GPS satellites around the world. Ships and Planes depend upon accurate GPS readings unless they have line of site or good radar readings. So, if the mathematics of even one of the 3 GPS satellites needed to place any vehicle within 3 feet of a location in air, sea or ground a small glitch could make the difference between life or death in some situations. However, even a black box on a plane after it crashed couldn't likely tell you that the problem was radiation from the Sun which altered the mathematics of a GPS satellite. However, within a few days likely someone on earth would see that a satellite wasn't working right and would reload the software remotely from earth and start over. However, this might be after one or more people died. But I don't think there is any way to check this kind of thing at present. There is likely no way to know if an error on board a satellite caused one or more deaths from an incorrect GPS reading.

Another way this radiation might manifest is that a part might get too much static electrical voltage from radiation and an electronics part might fail in a satellite. Another thing that happened in 1989 is that the radiation was so intense that it knocked out an Electrical power generating station and put a whole area into the dark in Southern Canada. That time people saw the Aurora Borealis as far south as Humbolt University in Northern California.