MSN Warns Disasters

Posted by KIRV on April 14, 2013

MSN Warns Disasters

Posted by Concept Activity Research Vault ( CARV ) on May 16, 2011

MSN Warns Disasters by, Concept Activity Research Vault

March 7, 2012 18:22:42 ( PST ) Updated ( Originally Published: May 16, 2011 )

Los Angeles – May 16, 2011 – MSN Slate News reported ( read article below ) that a host of disasters are coming, which ‘the public should not become overly worried about’, but suggests throwing a celebration-like “18th Century Weekend” in-advance so ‘people can experience what a solar flare disaster might be like to live through’.

While the suggested Medieval celebratory affair ‘concept’ is ‘unique’, MSN suggesting the public ‘stock up on batteries’ was a bit off because apparently the journalist did not realize ‘batteries become drained’ subsequent to an environmental anomaly ‘overcharging’ from an ambient auroral current attributable to what occurs during a Solar Energetic Particle Event ( SEPE ); ‘candles’ or ‘lumeniscent gel sticks’ ( shake lights ) would work amidst such, however mainstream news media broadcasts and print media, without thoroughly researching facts first, have a habit of passing inaccurate information on to the general public, and at the same time, doing it mostly in a whimsical fashion so it can be easily swallowed by the public. That type of reporting does ‘not’ help the public, but only serves to provide the illusion that what is being reported about will probably never happen. Big mistake!

News reporting, as a public service, should take far more care when reporting about emergency disaster preparedness on ‘what to do’ and just ‘how to prepare’; especially when it comes to mentioning a ‘significant’ solar flare ( also known as ) a Solar Energetic Particle Event ( SEPE ) that could quickly and very seriously disable the national electricity infrastructure without warning.

To let CARV readers review how MSN Slate News recently put it to the general public, we cordially invite ‘you’ ( our readers ) to review the MSN Slate News report ( below ) so, you can be the judge on whom to rely on for delivering your emergency disaster preparedness information from.

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Source: MSN Slate News

Meltdowns. Floods. Tornadoes. Oil spills. Grid crashes. Why more and more things seem to be going wrong, and what we can do about it.

The Century of Disasters by, Joel Achenbach

May 13, 2011 5:56 PM ( EST )

This will be the century of disasters.

In the same way that the 20th century was the century of world wars, genocide, and grinding ideological conflict, the 21st century will be the century of natural disasters and technological crises and unholy combinations of the two.

It will be the century when the things we count on to go right will – for whatever reason – go wrong.

Late last month ( April 2011 ), as the Mississippi River rose in what is destined to be the worst flood in decades, residents of Alabama and other states rummaged through the debris of a historic tornado outbreak.

Physicists at a meeting in Anaheim, California had a discussion about the dangers posed by the Sun.

Solar flares, scientists believe, are a disaster waiting to happen. Thus one of the sessions at the American Physical Society annual meeting was devoted to discussing the hazard of electromagnetic pulses ( EMP ) caused by solar flares – or terrorist attacks. Such pulses ( EMP ) could fry transformers and knock out the electrical grid over much of the nation. Last year the Oak Ridge National Laboratory released a study saying the damage might take years to fix and cost trillions of dollars.

But maybe even that is not the disaster people should be worrying about.

Maybe they should worry instead about the “ARkStorm.” That’s the name the U.S. Geological Survey ( USGS ) Multihazards Demonstration Project ( MDP ) gave to a hypothetical storm that would essentially turn much of the California Central Valley into a bathtub. It has happened before, in 1861 – 1862, when it rained for 45-days continously. USGS explains, “The ARkStorm draws heat and moisture from the tropical Pacific, forming a series of “Atmospheric Rivers” ( AR ) that approach the ferocity of hurricanes and then slam into the United States West Coast over several weeks.” The result, the USGS determined, could be a flood that would cost $725,000,000 billion in direct property losses and economic impact.

While pondering this, don’t forget the Cascadia subduction zone, the plate boundary off the coast of the Pacific Northwest, that could generate a tsunami much like the one that devastated Japan in March 2011. The Cascadia subduction zone, runs from Vancouver Island to northern California, last rupturing in a major tsunami spawning earthquake on January 26, 1700. It could break at any moment, with catastrophic consequences.

All of these things have the common feature of low probability and high consequence.

They are known as “black swan” events.

They are unpredictable in any practical sense.

There are also things ordinary people probably should not worry about on a daily basis.

You can’t fear the Sun.

You cannot worry a rock will fall out of the sky and smash the Earth, or that the ground will open up and swallow you like a vitamin.

A key element of maintaining one’s sanity is ‘knowing how to ignore risks’ that are highly improbable at any given point in time.

And yet in the coming century, these or other ‘black swan events’ will seem to occur with surprising frequency.

There are several reasons for this.

We have chosen to engineer the planet.

We have built vast networks of technology.

We have created systems that, in general, work very well, but are still vulnerable to catastrophic failures.

It is harder and harder for any one person, institution, or agency to perceive all the interconnected elements of the technological society.

Failures can cascade.

There are unseen weak points in the network.

Small failures can have broad consequences.

Most importantly, we have more people and more stuff standing in the way of calamity.

We are not suddenly having more earthquakes, but there are now 7,000,000,000 billion of us, a majority living in cities.

In 1800, only Beijing, China could count 1,000,000 inhabitants, but at last count there were 381 cities with at least 1,000,000 people.

Many are MegaCities in seismically hazardous places like Mexico City, Caracas, Venezuela; Tehran, Iran and Kathmandu amongst those with a lethal combination of weak infrastructure ( unreinforced masonry buildings ) and shaky foundations.

Natural disasters will increasingly be accompanied by technological crises, and the other way around.

In March 2011, the Japan earthquake triggered the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant meltdown.

Last year ( 2010 ), a technological failure on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig – in the Gulf of Mexico – led to the environmental crisis of the oil spill. ( I chronicle the Deepwater Horizon blowout and the ensuing crisis management in a new book: A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea: The Race to Kill the BP Oil Gusher. )

In both the Deepwater Horizon and Fukushima disasters, the safety systems were not nearly as robust as the industries believed.

In these technological accidents, there are hidden pathways for the gremlins to infiltrate the operation.

In the case of Deepwater Horizon, a series of decisions by BP ( oil company ) and its contractors led to a loss of well control — the initial blowout. The massive blowout preventer on the sea floor was equipped with a pair of pinchers known as ‘blind shear rams’. They were supposed to cut the drillpipe and shear the well. The forensic investigation indicated the initial eruption of gas buckled the pipe and prevented the blind shear rams from getting a clean bite on it so, the “backup” plan — of cutting the pipe — was effectively eliminated in the initial event; the loss of well control.

Fukushima also had a backup plan that was not far enough back. The nuclear power plant had backup generators – in case the grid went down – but the generators were on ‘low’ ground and were blasted by the tsunami.

Without electricity the power company had no way to cool the nuclear fuel rods.

In a sense, it was a very simple problem: a power outage.

Some modern reactors coming online have passive cooling systems for backups that rely on gravity and evaporation to circulate the cooling water.

Charles Perrow, author of Normal Accidents, told me that computer infrastructure is a disaster in the making.

“Watch out for failures in cloud computing,” he said by e-mail, “They will have consequences for medical monitoring systems and much else.”

Technology also mitigates disasters, of course.

Pandemics remain a threat, but modern medicine can help us stay a step ahead of evolving microbes.

Satellites and computer models helped meteorologists anticipate the deadly storms of April 27, 2011 and warn people to find cover in advance of the twisters.

Better building codes save lives in earthquakes. Chile, which has strict building codes, was hit with a powerful earthquake last year ( 2010 ) but suffered only a fraction of the fatalities and damage that impoverished Haiti endured just weeks earlier.

The current ( 2011 ) Mississippi flood is an example of technology at work for better and for worse.

As I write, the Army Corps of Engineers are poised to open the Morganza spillway and flood much of the Atchafalaya basin. That’s not a “disaster” but a solution of sorts, since the alternative is the flooding of cities downstream and possible levee failure. Of course, the levees might still fail. We’ll see. But this is how the system is ‘supposed’ to work.

On the other hand, the broader drainage system of the Mississippi River watershed is set up in a way that it makes floods more likely. Corn fields, for example in parts of the upper Midwest, have been “tiled” with pipes that carry excess rainwater rapidly to the rip-rap ( small stone ladden ) streams and onward down to rivers lined with levees. We gave up natural drainage decades ago.

The Mississippi is like a catheter, at this point. Had nature remained in charge, the river would have mitigated much of its downstream flooding by spreading into natural floodplains further up river ( and the main channel would have long ago switched to the Atchafalaya river basin — see John McPhee “The Control of Nature” — and New Orleans would no longer be a riverfront city).

One wild card for how disastrous this century will become is climate change.

There’s been a robust debate on the blogs about whether the recent weather events ( tornadoes and floods ) can be attributed to climate change.

It is a briar patch of an issue and I’ll exercise my right to skip past it for the most part.

But I think it’s clear that climate change will exacerbate natural disasters in general in coming years, and introduce a new element of risk and uncertainty into a future in which we have plenty of risks and uncertainties already. This, we don’t need.

And by the way, any discussion of “geoengineering” as a solution to climate change needs to be examined with the understanding that engineering systems can and will fail.

You don’t want to bet, the future of the planet, on an elaborate technological fix in which everything has to work perfectly. If failure is not an option, maybe you ‘should not’ try-it to begin-with.

So if we cannot engineer our-way out-of our ‘engineered disasters’, and if ‘natural disasters’ are going to keep pummeling us – as they have since the dawn of time — what is our strategy? Other than, you-know, despair? Well, that has always worked for me, but here are a few more practical thoughts to throw in the mix:

First [ 1st ], we might want to try some regulation by people with no skin in the game. That might mean, for example, government regulators who make as much money as the people they’re regulating. Or it could even mean a ‘private-sector regulatory apparatus policing the industry’, cracking down on rogue operators. The point is, we don’t want every risky decision made by people with pecuniary interests.

Second [ 2nd ], we need to keep things in perspective. The apparent onslaught of disasters does not portend the end of the world. Beware of ‘disaster hysteria in the news media’. The serial disasters of the 21st century will be – to some extent – a matter of perception. It will feel like we are bouncing from disaster-to-disaster in-part because of the shrinking of the world and the ubiquity of communications technology. Anderson Cooper and Sanjay Gupta are always in a disaster zone somewhere – demanding to know why the cavalry [ emergency first responders ] has not showed up.

Third [ 3rd ], we should think in terms of ‘how we can boost’ our “societal resilience;” the buzz-word in the ‘disaster preparedness industry’.

Think of what you would do, and what your community would do, after a disaster.

You cannot always dodge the disaster, but perhaps you can still figure-out how to recover quickly.

How would we ‘communicate’ if we got [ solar ] flared by the Sun and the [ electricity ] grid went down over 2/3rds of the country?

How would we even know what was going on?

Maybe we need to have the occasional “18th Century weekend” – to see how people might get through a couple of days without the [ electricity ] grid, cell [ telephone ] towers, cable TV [ television ], iTunes downloads – the full Hobbesian nightmare. And make an emergency plan: Buy some ‘batteries’ [ < ? > NOTE: solar flare effects, during a Solar Energetic Particle Event ( SEPE ), renders ‘all batteries dead’. ] and jugs of water – just for starters.

Figure-out how things around you work.

Learn about your community infrastructure.

Read about science, technology, engineering and ‘do not worry if you do not understand all the jargon’.

And then – having done that – go on about your lives, pursuing happiness on a planet that, though sometimes dangerous, is by-far the best one we’ve got.

Reference

http://www.slate.com/id/2294013/pagenum/all/#p2

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Hopefully, people will take an opportunity to read the CARV report on Solar Energetic Particle Event Effects so they can ‘really know what to prepare for soon’, ’before celebrating’ an “18th Century weekend” affair – complete with “batteries” – as suggested by the MSN Slate News article ( above ).

Although the aforementioned Slate News article indicates, “Solar flares, scientists believe, are a disaster waiting to happen. Thus one of the sessions at the American Physical Society annual meeting was devoted to discussing the hazard of electromagnetic pulses ( EMP ) caused by solar flares – or terrorist attacks. Such pulses ( EMP ) could fry transformers and knock out the electrical grid over much of the nation. Last year the Oak Ridge National Laboratory released a study saying the damage might take years to fix and cost trillions of dollars. But maybe even that is not the disaster people should be worrying about,” – we actually ‘may’ have ‘something “people should be worrying about,” as MSNBC puts it, or “concerned about,” according to NASA, in-lieu of the following MSNBC Space.Com report ( below ):

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Source: MSNBC.COM

Huge Solar Flare’s Magnetic Storm May Disrupt Satellites, Power Grids

March 7, 2012 13:19 p.m. Eastern Standard Time ( EST )

A massive solar flare that erupted from the Sun late Tuesday ( March 6, 2012 ) is unleashing one of the most powerful solar storms in more than 5-years, ‘a solar tempest that may potentially interfere with satellites in orbit and power grids when it reaches Earth’.

“Space weather has gotten very interesting over the last 24 hours,” Joseph Kunches, a space weather scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ), told reporters today ( March 7, 2012 ). “This was quite the Super Tuesday — you bet.”

Several NASA spacecraft caught videos of the solar flare as it hurled a wave of solar plasma and charged particles, called a Coronal mass Ejection ( CME ), into space. The CME is not expected to hit Earth directly, but the cloud of charged particles could deliver a glancing blow to the planet.

Early predictions estimate that the Coronal Mass Ejections ( CMEs ) will reach Earth tomorrow ( March 8, 2012 ) at 07:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time ( EST ), with the ‘effects likely lasting for 24-hours and possibly lingering into Friday ( March 9, 2012 )’, Kunches said.

The solar eruptions occurred late Tuesday night ( March 6, 2012 ) when the sun let loose two ( 2 ) huge X-Class solar flares that ‘ranked among the strongest type’ of sun storms. The biggest of those 2 flares registered as an X Class Category 5.4 solar flare geomagnetic storm on the space weather scale, making it ‘the strongest sun eruption so far this year’.

Typically, Coronal Mass Ejections ( CMEs ) contain 10,000,000,000 billion tons of solar plasma and material, and the CME triggered by last night’s ( March 6, 2012 ) X-Class Category 5.4 solar flare is ‘the one’ that could disrupt satellite operations, Kunches said.

“When the shock arrives, the expectation is for heightened geomagnetic storm activity and the potential for heightened solar radiation,” Kunches said.

This heightened geomagnetic activity and increase in solar radiation could impact satellites in space and ‘power grids on the ground’.

Some high-precision GPS ( Global Positioning Satellite ) users could also be affected, he said.

“There is the potential for ‘induced currents in power grids’,” Kunches said. “‘Power grid operators have all been alerted’. It could start to ’cause some unwanted induced currents’.”

Airplanes that fly over the polar caps could also experience communications issues during this time, and some commercial airliners have already taken precautionary actions, Kunches said.

Powerful solar storms can also be hazardous to astronauts in space, and NOAA is working close with NASA’s Johnson Space Center to determine if the six ( 6 ) spacecraft residents of the International Space Station ( ISS ) need to take shelter in more protected areas of the orbiting laboratory, he added.

The flurry of recent space weather events could also supercharge aurora displays ( also known as the Northern Lights and Southern Lights ) for sky-watchers at high latitudes.

“Auroras are probably the treat that we get when the sun erupts,” Kunches said.

Over the next couple days, Kunches estimates that brightened auroras could potentially be seen as far south as the southern Great Lakes region, provided the skies are clear.

Yesterday’s ( March 6, 2012 ) solar flares erupted from the giant active sunspot AR1429, which spewed an earlier X Class Category 1.1 solar flare on Sunday ( March 4, 2012 ). The CME from that one ( 1 ) outburst mostly missed Earth, passing Earth by last night ( March 6, 2012 ) at around 11 p.m. EST, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center ( SWPC ), which is jointly managed by NOAA and the National Weather Service ( NWS ).

This means that the planet ( Earth ) is ‘already experiencing heightened geomagnetic and radiation effects in-advance’ of the next oncoming ( March 8, 2012 thru March 9, 2012 ) Coronal Mass Ejection ( CME ).

“We’ve got ‘a whole series of things going off’, and ‘they take different times to arrive’, so they’re ‘all piling on top of each other’,” Harlan Spence, an astrophysicist at the University of New Hampshire, told SPACE.com. “It ‘complicates the forecasting and predicting’ because ‘there are always inherent uncertainties with any single event’ but now ‘with multiple events piling on top of one another’, that ‘uncertainty grows’.”

Scientists are closely monitoring the situation, particularly because ‘the AR1429 sunspot region remains potent’. “We think ‘there will be more coming’,” Kunches said. “The ‘potential for more activity’ still looms.”

As the Sun rotates, ‘the AR1429 region is shifting closer to the central meridian of the solar disk where flares and associated Coronal Mass Ejections ( CMEs ) may ‘pack more a punch’ because ‘they are more directly pointed at Earth’.

“The Sun is waking up at a time in the month when ‘Earth is coming into harms way’,” Spence said. “Think of these ‘CMEs somewhat like a bullet that is shot from the sun in more or less a straight line’. ‘When the sunspot is right in the middle of the sun’, something ‘launched from there is more or less directed right at Earth’. It’s kind of like how getting sideswiped by a car is different than ‘a head-on collision’. Even still, being ‘sideswiped by a big CME can be quite dramatic’.” Spence estimates that ‘sunspot region AR 1429 will rotate past the central meridian in about 1-week’.

The sun’s activity ebbs and flows on an 11-year cycle. The sun is in the midst of Solar Maximum Cycle 24, and activity is expected to ramp up toward the height of the Solar Maximum in 2013.

Reference

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46655901/

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Do we need “Planetary Protection?” NASA has a specific website, referenced here ( below ) as do others ( below ), including The Guardians of the Millennium.

Submitted for review and commentary by,

Concept Activity Research Vault E-MAIL: ConceptActivityResearchVault@Gmail.Com WWW: http://ConceptActivityResearchVault.WordPress.Com

Reference

http://planetaryprotection.nasa.gov/about/ [ Planetary Protection ) http://www.lpi.usra.edu/captem/ [ CAPTEM ] http://www.nrl.navy.mil/pao/pressRelease.php?Y=2008&R=39-08r [ U.S. Naval Research Laboratory ] http://hesperia.gsfc.nasa.gov/sftheory/imager.htm [ RHESSI ]

Global Environmental Intelligence ( GEI )

Posted by KIRV on April 14, 2013

Global Environmental Intelligence ( GEI )
by, Kentron Intellect Research Vault ( KIRV )

TUCSON, Arizona – March 7, 2012 – Nebraska is part of America’s heartland where less than fifty ( 50 ) people are ‘officially designated’ – by the U.S. Air Force Weather Agency ( AFWA ) – to analyze the pulsebeat of ‘doom and gloom’ through ‘scientific terms’ calculated within a new ‘strategic center’ using the latest ultra high-tech computer system, software application program modules and networking capabilities for what ‘global government national infrastructures’ expect, based on what the National Aeronautic Space Administration ( NASA ) warned would hit Earth during the current ”Solar Maximum” ( Cycle 24 ) sending a ‘significant’ “Solar Energetic Particle Event” ( SEPE ) to Earth that “we all need to be concerned about.”

What possibly could go wrong?

We’re all protected, aren’t we?

We are ‘not protected against natural events’ that we have ‘no control over’, but governments have been doing their best to monitor activities, which is one ( 1 ) reason ‘why’ the United States Air Force ( USAF ) ‘subordinate organization’ known as its Air Force Weather Agency ( AFWA ) analyzes significant scientific data from horizons above and below the Earth, searching for clues as to what ‘natural significant event’ ( i.e. Solar Energetic Particle Event ( SEPE ), tectonic plate shift ( continental earthquakes ), magnetic pole shift ( climate change ), or something else as dramatic will occur.

The sole “Mission” of the U.S. Air Force Weather Agency ( USAFWA ) is tasked as the only U.S. government Agency ‘officially designated to analyze’ incredible amounts of scientific doom and gloom information the public might think came from ‘doomsday prophets’ concerned about Earth calamities going to happen soon.

Space Weather Earth Forecasting

Current official information ( received 24-hours a day and 365-days a year ) by the U.S. Air Force Weather Agency ( USAFWA ) and its host Directorate of Operational Weather Squadrons ( OWS ), group of ‘solar observatories’, ‘satellites’, ‘spacecraft’, ‘interstellar lightwave spectral and radio-frequency ( RF ) imaging sensors’, ‘telescopes’ with a wide array of ‘cameras’ as well as ‘human observers’ are continuing to report enough worrisome information that would scare many of us, but – ‘officially’ – the public will never know ‘what’ is about to befall them or ‘when’ that will occur.

After a considerable amount of research into this subject, the U.S. Air Force was caught ‘publicly admitting’ they are able to “know within minutes” as to ‘what significant Earth Event is coming’ and just ‘when it will arrive’ – anywhere between a few hours up-to days in-advance’, but the public will never be informed. Why?

Doom & Gloom or Fantasy Island?

Undoubtedly, classified ( in the ‘interest of national security’ ), would be the officially given reason to the public. Some might ask, “But, for ‘whose’ “security?” People, for the most part, are ‘not secure’ – especially when facing a pending injurious consequence resulting in ruination of life as they may have come to know their’s – and most gravitate toward wanting to “be with family” ( or “loved ones” ) as any pending cataclysmic Earth Event draws nearer to them all. The U.S. Air Force Weather Agency ( AFWA ), however realizes that being occupants of planet Earth is ‘not the same thing as’ “Fantasy Island” or a trip to “McDonaldland” as the rest of the public at-large has come to know ‘their version’ of what planet Earth is for ‘them’ and their children.

Preparedness

What may even be more interesting to the public is to review official U.S. data surrounding what U.S. Air Force commands ‘are already preparing for’, what ‘they already have set in-place’ for ‘everyone living in the Continental United States ( CONUS )’, and ‘how they are going to accomplish’ their secret-sensitive “Mission” on ‘people’ throughout the United States. This is ‘definitely not’ a ‘science fiction movie’ or ‘Orwellian Theory’ within this report, but strictly what the U.S. Air Force Weather Agency and another U.S. Air Force ‘subordinate organization’, the Air and Space Operations ( ASO ), Director of Weather ( USAF Deputy Chief of Staff ) has ‘recently laid-out publicly’, but for the ‘public’ to decipher ‘all of what was so officially presented’ many were lost in the government psychobabble resulting in no impact on the public as to the ‘seriousness’ for what they need to ‘begin preparing for’.

Television Commercial ‘Official Advertisement’ Already Warned Public!

Recently ( 2010 and 2011 ), the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency ( FEMA ) began advertising its own advertising commercial on American television. The FEMA TV ad commercial ’warns the public to prepare’ for an “unexpected Event” that “can suddenly turn your life – and those around you – ‘upside down’.”

FEMA’s TV commercial advertisement ( see video clip – below ) is easily recalled by those who watch / watched it – depicting a ‘family inside a home’ where all of a sudden everything inside the home’ begins floating up in the air; as though ‘gravity was somehow suddeny lost’. This ‘professionally produced television commercial advertisement’ from FEMA ‘stylishly warns people to prepare for any unexpected natural disaster Earth Event, however FEMA did not describe ‘what type of event strike for people to expect’.

The sadest part about this is that the U.S. government actually considers this television commercial advertisement an “official public warning to prepare for a national disaster” while simultaneously the U.S. government hopes the commercial will ‘not’ create ‘panic’ or ‘chaos’ in the streets that would disrupt ‘skyrocketing profits’ received by ‘global elite’ and/or ‘big business’ through their stock market portfolios. In short, this alluding to a national disaster is nothing short of being the ‘Biggest Show On Earth’ continuing profits from basic living expenses saddling the ‘little people’, ‘worthless eaters’, and ‘consumers of “blue gold” ( water ) the global elite predict will rise – more-so than precious metals – after such an Earth Disaster Event ( EDE ).

Survival By Chance or Circumstance

One of the most worrisome concerns, after reviewing this report ( filled with official U.S. government information’ ), is: ‘What’, ‘when’ and ‘how’ U.S. government ‘decision-makers’ react to their ‘official alert’. Many will undoubtedly and instantly gather with ‘their families’, however ‘what about the rest of us’ gathering with ‘our families? We will not be provided the same ‘early alert’ to even know – until after it ( significant Earth Event ) already takes place! Is this ‘fair’? Is this ‘just’? Is this ‘humane’? Or, is this pure and unadulterated ‘elitist selfishness’ that government affords for only a ‘select few’ lucky souls fortunate enough to be provided with sufficient warning in-advance and additionally told were to go and what to do in order to escape the wrath of such a cataclysmic Earth Event? Few people realize that those ‘decision-makers’ have already been instructed in-advance as to ‘what’ they need to do and ‘when’ they need to do it.

AFWA Notifies 350 Military Installations About Earth Disaster Event

Even more frightening is, ‘what’ the U.S. military has ‘already been commanded’ as to ‘how to accomplish’ their “Mission” based on a highly-classified U.S. Presidential Executive Order ( EO ) turning the U.S. population over to U.S. military control. The U.S. Air Force Weather Agency ( AFWA ) was also ‘officially designated’ as the “Agency” ‘controlling internet ( cyberspace ) shutdown’, according to the report ( below ) and further researching the capabilities of its ‘subordinate organization’ ( un-named ) “Strategic Center.”

Current Reporting Revelations

This report contains ‘no old news’ but ‘new official U.S. government revelations’, which cause the public to re-think where they are and what is coming. The only information this report does ‘not’ provide publicly are the ‘names’, ‘addresses, ‘phone numbers’, and ‘photographs’ of those ‘key individuals’ whom are ‘already designated’ as those ‘ready’, ‘willing’ and ‘able’ to ‘perform as ordered on-command’ – even if that command is ‘unable to be given’ after a cataclysmic Earth Event!

Reviewers Need To Know

There are only two ( 2 ) ‘official U.S. government reports’ provided ( below ) in this report, which contains internet links to more ‘official information’ on this subject.

Knowing the public at-large, and hot it predominantly enjoys ‘entertaining flowery written articles’ – they never bother to ‘research’ anything further about’ – this report was purposely kept ‘short and sweet’ ( no flowers – no frills ). It includes an ‘official government article’ that was converted into a ‘very simple outline’, and that is followed-up with yet another ‘official government article’ left as-is. Hopefully, some may consume this report far-easier than others at this website so its point on this subject may be even-better publicly received.

The first ( 1st ) report ( included immediately below ) was ‘thoroughly analyzed’ in its ‘original format’, and then – based on ‘even more detailed official information’ discovered – was ‘re-formatted into an even-more proper perspective’, and – for the sake of making this report far-more easily comprehendible for public review – it was finally ‘converted into a simple outline format’ but only because of the fashion by-which government complicated the original public information release’; saying everything but not saying it very well for the public to easily understand.

The second ( 2nd ) report ( further below ) was left in its ‘original format’ because anyone reviewing it can quickly understand the nature of the ‘true problems’ surrounding what we all are going to be facing soon enough.

You be the judge, as to ‘what’ you will do, to ‘prepare’ for the ‘officially expected’ Earth Event. Enjoy the report ( below ) and be sure to click on the embedded links to learn more about ‘what effects’ are ‘coming’ and ‘what’ the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ( DHS ) is preparing for.

Tell a friend about what you review ( below ) and your reply may be, “You can’t trust what you read on the internet.” If anyone does ‘not trust’ this report ( below ) – or anything else on this website – they should click on the ‘official government website links’ ( provided at the bottom of this report, and other links found herein ) – if they are equipped with an ‘attention-span’ ( longer than a bug ) or ‘not easily distracted’ by something as simple as a ‘horn honk’ – then they can ‘research it all’ for themselves and try to prove this information and you are incorrect.

Many will be amazed at how much these official government revelations will help them to prepare for more than ‘entertainment’.

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Source: United States Air Force ( USAF ) Weather Agency ( AFWA )

Air Force Weather Agency ( AFWA ) 106 Peacekeeper Drive, Suite 2 Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska 68113-4039 USA TEL: +1 (402) 232-8166 ( Public Affairs ) TEL: DSN TEL: 272-8166 ( DSN )

HISTORY –

United States Air Force Weather Agency ( USAFWA ) – aka – Air Force Weather Agency ( AFWA ) claims heritage extrapolated back to World War I, when the U.S. Army ( USA ) ‘subordinate organization’ Signal Corps ( ASC ) ‘subordinate organization’ “Meteorological Service” ( SCMC ) provided ‘weather support’ for U.S. Army defense aircraft pilots.

Amidst the legacy of the U.S. Secretary of War, ( known ‘today’ as ) U.S. Department of Defense ( DoD ), it – having realized its ‘subordinate organization’ U.S. Army had ‘increasing military personnel numbers’ due to an ‘increasing defense stockpile inventory’ of U.S. Army ‘militarized aircraft’ – created a ‘then-new subordinate organization’ known as the U.S. Army ( USA ) Air Corps ( AAC ) that became well-known as the U.S. Army Air Corps ( USAAC ).

On July 1, 1937 the U.S. Secretary of War ‘reorganized’ the U.S. Army ‘subordinate organization’ Signal Corps ( ASC ) ‘subordinate organization’ Metereological Service ( MS ) ‘out-of’ the Signal Corps ( SC ) and ‘in-to’ the U.S. Army ( USA ) ‘subordinate organization’ Air Corps ( ASC ) as its ‘then-new subordinate organization’ Meteorological Service ( ACMS ).

On April 14, 1943 the U.S. Army Air Corps ( USAAC ) ‘subordinate organization’ Meteorological Service ( MS ) was ‘renamed’ “Weather Wing” ( WW ) and ‘physically moved’ to an Asheville, North Carolina location – where ‘today’ the U.S. Air Force Weather Agency ( USAFWA ) has its 14th Operational Weather Squadron ( OWS ) located.

In 1945, the U.S. Army Air Corps ( USAAC ) Weather Wing ( ACWW ) was ‘renamed’ the U.S. Army Air Corps “Weather Service” ( ACWS ).

In early 1946, the U.S. Army Air Corps Weather Service ( ACWS ) was ‘physically moved’ from Asheville, North Carolina to the U.S. Army Air Corps Langley Field Station – where ‘today’ Langley Air Force Base ( LAFB ) is located.

On March 13, 1946 the U.S. Army Air Corps Weather Service ( ACWS ) was ‘reorganized’ under the U.S. Army Air Corps ( USAAC ) ‘new subordinate organization’ Air Transport Command ( ATC ) where its ‘then-new subordinate organization’ “Weather Service” ( ACWS ) was ‘renamed’ “Air Weather Service” ( AWS ).

Later-on, in 1946, the U.S. Army Air Corps ( USAAC ) Air Transport Command ( ATC ) Air Weather Service ( AWS ) was ‘physically moved’ to Gravelly Point, Virginia.

In 1947, the U.S. Army Air Corps ( USAAC ) was ‘renamed’ United States Air Force ( USAF ) whereupon the “Air Weather Service” ( AWS ) became ‘directly under it’ and assumed ‘sole responsibility’ over ‘all global weather reporting’ and ‘all global weather forecasting’ for ‘both’ the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army.

In 1948, the USAF ‘newly activated’ Military Air Transport Service ( MATS ) – ( known ‘today’ as ) Military Airlift Command ( MAC ) – then-received its ‘newly-transferred subordinate organization’ Air Weather Service ( AWS ) that was ‘removed from being directly under’ USAF ‘headquarters’. USAF Military Air Transport Service ( MATS ) ‘subordinate organization’ Air Weather Service ( AWS ) was then ‘physically moved’ to Andrews Air Force Base ( AAFB ) in Maryland.

In 1958, the USAF Military Airlift Command ( MAC ) ‘subordinate organization’ Air Weather Service ( AWS ) was then ‘physically moved’ to Scott Air Force Base ( SAFB ) in Illinois where – for almost 40-years – it remained.

In 1991, the USAF Military Airlift Command ( MAC ) ‘subordinate organization’ Air Weather Service ( AWS ) was ‘redesignated’ as a “field operating agency” and then ‘reorganized’ directly back under USAF ‘headquarters’.

On October 15, 1997 the USAF Air Weather Service ( AWS ) was ‘redesignated’ as the “Air Force Weather Agency” ( AFWA ) and ‘physically moved’ to Offutt Air Force Base ( OAFB ) in Nebraska where it remains ‘today’ – at least for the moment.

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United States Air Force ( USAF )

USAF Weather Agency ( USAFWA )

BUDGET –

$183,000,000 million U.S. dollars ( annually ) includes $98,000,000 million dollars for ‘Operations’ and ‘Maintenance’.

ESTABLISHED –

October 15, 1997.

LOCATION –

Offutt Air Force Base ( OAFB ) in Nebraska ( USA ).

REPORTING –

USAF Air and Space Operations ( ASO ), Director of Weather ( DOW ), Deputy Chief of Staff ( DCS ).

MISSION –

Enable U.S. decision makers’ exploitation of all ‘resources’ based-on ‘relevant’ Global Environmental Intelligence ( GEI ) for a ‘global spectrum of military warfare’ by ‘maximizing U.S. power, over:

– Land; – Air; – Space; and, – Internet ( cyberspace ).

PERSONNEL –

1,400 + manned, by:

– Military ( active-duty and reserve ); – Contractors ( government contracts ); and, – Civilians.

ORGANIZATION –

– ? ( # ) Agencies ( staff ); – Two ( 2 ) Weather Groups ( WXG – Coordinators ); – Fourteen + ( 14 + ) Weather Squadrons ( OWS – Directorates ); – Five ( 5 ) Observatories ( solar ); and, – One ( 1 ) Strategic Operation Systems Center ( Unknown – ‘subordinate organization’ ).

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USAFWA

Global Environmental Intelligence ( GEI )

DATA –

Global Environmental Intelligence ( GEI ) data is ‘collected’ from a variety of ‘information monitoring sources’ ( Earth based and space based locations ) providing a variety of ‘data feed streams’ of information from a computer operated system network out-of a ‘Strategic Center’ processing indications detecting almost any ‘significant natural negative impact’ that ‘could occur’ on ‘people’ and ‘national infractures’ throughout ‘global geographic regions’ and in ‘outerspace’.

SOURCES –

GEI data is provided by, many sources, amongst-which, its ( subordinate ) Strategic Center that processes data through its Computer Operation Systems Network that receives ‘channeled data streams’ from ‘encoded data telemetry’ sent from ‘ground-base sourced’ and ‘space-based sourced’ detection monitors comprised, of:

– Ground Sensors ( infra-red, spectral and sonic );; – Submerged Sensors ( infra-red, spectral and sonic );; – Space-based Sensors ( lightwave, spectral and sonic ); – Long-Range Telescopes ( radio-frequency wave, optical lightwave and sonic ); – Imaging Cameras ( lightwave, spectral and sonic ); and, – Human Observers ( various means ).

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SPECIAL NOTE:

USAF ASO A6 –

The U.S. Air Force ( USAF ) Air and Space Operations ( ASO ) Communications Directorate ( ” A6 ” ) ‘provides’ the ‘policy oversight’ and ‘planning oversight’ of Command, Control, and Communication Intelligence ( C3I ) for the U.S. Air Force Weather Agency ( USAFWA ).

USAF Air and Space Operations ( ASO ) Communications Directorate ( A6 ) also ‘provides support’ over ‘daily operations’, ‘contingency actions’, and ‘general’ Command, Control, Communication and Computer Intelligence ( C4I ) for the U.S. Air Force Weather Agency ( USAFWA ).

–

– –

USAFWA

Weather Groups ( WXD ) –

Weather Groups ( WXD ) are specifically designated to, coordinate:

– Global Environmental Intelligence ( GEI ) – Operational Weather Squadrons ( OWS ).

– –

USAFWA

Operational Weather SquadronS ( OWS ) –

STATIONS –

A ‘minimum’ of fourteen ( 14 ) Operational Weather Squadrons ( OWS ) are on-station ( active ) 24 hours per day 7 days per week 365 weeks per year to mitigate ( handle ) Global Environmental Intelligence ( GEI ) issues.

Operational Weather Squadrons ( OWS ) – also known as – Weather Squadrons ( WS ) are ‘designated’, to:

– ‘Process’ Global Environmental Intelligence ( GEI ) data; and, – ‘Provisionally Distribute’ Global Environmental Intelligence ( GEI ) data.

Operational Weather Squadron Global Environmental Intelligence ( OWS GEI )

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2nd Weather Group ( WXD )

2ND WXD

OVERSIGHT –

– 2nd ( Strategic Computing Network Center ) Systems Operations Squadron ( SOS ) – Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska; – 2nd Operational Weather Squadron ( OWS ) – Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska; and, – 14th Operational Weather Squadron ( OWS ) – Asheville, North Carolina.

2ND WXD Global Environmental Intelligence ( GEI )

DISTRIBUTION –

– U.S. Agency ‘decision-makers’; – U.S. Department of Defense ( DoD ) ‘decision-makers’; – U.S. Allied Foreign Nation ‘decision-makers’; and, – U.S. Joint Operations ‘Warfighters’.

–

SPECIAL NOTE:

USAF ASO A3 and USAF ASO A5 –

USAF Air and Space Operations ( ASO ) Plans and Requirements Directorate ( PRD ) – also known as – ( ” A3 ” and ” A5 ” ) ‘develops’ and ‘maintains’ the ‘concepts of operations’ for how U.S. Air Force Weather Agency ( USAFWA ) – also known as – Air Force Weather ( AFW ) supports “most weather sensitive” areas of ‘joint capabilities’.

–

REPORTS –

– Timely; – Relevant; and, – Specialized.

SOURCES –

Solar Observatories ( Detachments – Det. ), four ( 4 ):

Det. 1 ( 2ND WXG SO Detachment 1 – Learmonth, Australia ); Det. 2 ( 2ND WXG SO Detachment 2 – Sagamore Hill, Massachusetts ); Det. 4 ( 2ND WXG SO Detachment 3 – Holloman Air Force Base – New Mexico ); and, Det. 5 ( 2ND WXG SO Detachment 4 – Palehua, Hawaii ).

–

SPECIAL NOTE:

USAF ASO A3 and USAF ASO A5 –

USAF Air and Space Operations ( ASO ) Plans and Requirements Directorate ( PRD ) – also known as – ( ” A3 ” and ” A5 ” ) ‘works in conjunction with’ MAJCOM ‘functional counterpart users’ of products, data and services supplied from U.S. Air Force Weather Agency ( USAFWA ) – also known as – Air Force Weather ( AFW ).

USAF Air and Space Operations ( ASO ) Plans and Requirements Directorate ( PRD ) – also known as – ( ” A3 ” and ” A5 ” ) is ‘one ( 1 ) agent’ of the ‘lead Command’ for ‘gathering operational requirements’.

–

USAGES –

– Planning – Military Operation Missions ( global spectrum ); and, – Executing – Military Operation Missions ( global spectrum ).

–

SPECIAL NOTE:

USAF ASO A3 and USAF ASO A5 –

USAF Air and Space Operations ( ASO ) Plans and Requirements Directorate ( PRD ) – also known as – ( ” A3 ” and ” A5 ” ) ‘coordinates’ U.S. Air Force Weather Agency ( USAFWA ) – also known as – Air Force Weather ( AFW ) policy issues.

–

TASKS –

Four ( 4 ) Operational Weather Squadrons ( OWS ) ‘specifically conduct’ Global Environmental Intelligence ( GEI ):

– Warnings ( 24-hours / 7-days a week / 365-weeks a year ); – Military Mission Briefings ( 24-hours / 7-days a week / 365-weeks a year ) – Forecasts ( 24-hours / 7-days a week / 365-weeks a year ); and, – Analysis ( 24-hours / 7-days a week / 365-weeks a year ).

PROCESSING –

Strategic Center ( cost: $277,000,000 million dollars ) ‘subordinate organization’, provides:

– Computer System Complex; – Computer System Network Productions; – Computer System Applications; – Computer System Operations; – Computer System Sustainment; and, – Computer System Maintenance.

Air Force Weather Enterprise ( AFWE ) is a ‘computer system’ of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD ). AFWE computer system access is ‘restricted’ to members of the United States military ( Active Duty, National Guard, or Reserve Forces), U.S. Government, or U.S. government contractors that do business with the U.S. government and require ‘weather information’.

SPECIAL NOTE(S):

–

USAF ASO A8 –

The U.S. Air Force ( USAF ) Air and Space Operations ( ASO ) Strategic Plans and Programs Directorate ( ” A8 ” ) ‘directs’ the ‘planning’, ‘programming’, ‘budgeting’, ‘development’, ‘acquisition’, ‘engineering’, ‘configuration management’, ‘modification’, ‘installation’, ‘integration’, ‘logistics’ and ‘life cycle maintenance support’ over ‘all’ of the ‘computer processing equipment’ and over ‘all’ of the ‘standard weather systems’.

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USAFWA

1st Weather Group ( 1ST WXG ) Directorate

1ST WXG

Global Environmental Intelligence ( GEI )

GEI DISTRIBUTION –

The USAF Air Force Weather Agency ( AFWA ) 1st Weather Group ( 1ST WXG ) Directorate uses ‘four’ ( 4 ) Operational Weather Squadrons ( OWS ) ready 24-hours a day 7-days a week 365-days a year to provide its Global Environmental Intelligence ( GEI ) notification distributions to U.S. ‘military forces’ ( see military branches below ) at 350 ‘specific installations’ located in ‘five’ ( 5 ) Continental United States ( CONUS ) Regions.

OWS GEI NOTIFICATION REGIONS –

SOUTHEASTERN ( CONUS )

9th Operational Weather Squadron ( OWS ) Shaw Air Force Base South Carolina

9TH OWS – Notifies:

– U.S. Air Force; – U.S. Air Force Reserve; – U.S. Air Force National Guard; – U.S. Army; – U.S. Army Reserve; and, – U.S. Army National Guard.

NORTHERN ( CONUS ) AND, NORTHEASTERN ( CONUS )

15th Operational Weather Squadron ( OWS ) Scott Air Force Base Illinois

15TH OWS – Notifies ( Both Regions ):

– U.S. Air Force; – U.S. Air Force Reserve; – U.S. Air Force National Guard; – U.S. Army; – U.S. Army Reserve; and, – U.S. Army National Guard.

WESTERN ( CONUS )

25th Operational Weather Squadron ( OWS ) Davis-Monthan Air Force Base Tucson, Arizona

25TH OWS – Notifies:

– U.S. Air Force; – U.S. Air Force Reserve; – U.S. Air Force National Guard; – U.S. Army; – U.S. Army Reserve; and, – U.S. Army National Guard.

SOUTHERN ( CONUS )

26th Operational Weather Squadron ( OWS ) Barksdale Air Force Base Louisiana

26TH OWS – Notifies:

– U.S. Air Force; – U.S. Air Force Reserve; – U.S. Air Force National Guard; – U.S. Army; – U.S. Army Reserve; and, – U.S. Army National Guard.

SPECIAL NOTE:

USAF ASO A3 and USAF ASO A5 –

USAF Air and Space Operations ( ASO ) Plans and Requirements Directorate ( PRD ) – also known as – ( ” A3 ” and ” A5 ” ) ‘works with’ USAF Air and Space Operations ( ASO ) staff to integrate U.S. Air Force Weather Agency ( USAFWA ) – also known as – Air Force Weather ( AFW ) Continental Operations ( CONOPS ) with U.S. Air Force ‘plans’ and ‘Programs’.

USAF Air and Space Operations ( ASO ) Plans and Requirements Directorate ( PRD ) – also known as – ( ” A3 ” and ” A5 ” ) ‘assists’ in the ‘exploitation of weather information’ for ‘warfighting operations’.

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The aforementioned four ( 4 ) Operational Weather Squadrons ( OWS ) additionally, provide:

– USAF Weather Agency officer ‘upgrade’ training; and, – Apprentice forecaster ‘initial’ qualification.

– –

USAFWA Manpower & Personnel Directorate ( A1 ) ‘provides’ the global spectrum, of:

– Manpower; – Organization; – Personnel; and, – Training.

–

SPECIAL NOTE:

USAF ASO A3 and USAF ASO A5 –

USAF Air and Space Operations ( ASO ) Plans and Requirements Directorate ( PRD ) – also known as – ( ” A3 ” and ” A5 ” ) ‘oversees’ and ‘executes’ U.S. Air Force Weather Agency ( USAFWA ) – also known as – Air Force Weather ( AFW ) Standardization and Evaluation Program for ‘Weather Operations’.

U.S. Air Force ( USAF ) Air and Space Operations ( ASO ) Plans and Requirements Directorate ( PRD ) – also known as – ( ” A3 ” and ” A5 ” ) ‘assists’ the USAF Air and Space Operations ( ASO ) staff with managing U.S. Air Force Weather Agency ( USAFWA ) – also known as – Air Force Weather ( AFW ) the ‘process’ of ‘career field-training’ by ‘obtaining training’ and ‘implementing training’ to meet ‘career field-training requirements’.

–

– –

USAF

Air Force Combat Weather Center ( USAFCWC – aka – AFCWC )

USAF Combat Weather Center ( Hurlburt Field, Florida ) ‘develops’, ‘evaluates’, ‘exploits’ and ‘implements’ a variety of ‘new tactics’, ‘new techniques’, ‘new procedures’ and ‘new technologies’ across U.S. Air Force Weather Agency ( USAFWA ) – also known as – Air Force Weather ( AFW ) ‘enhancing effectiveness’ for U.S. military force branches, of the:

U.S. Special Forces; U.S. Joint Operations; U.S. Combined Operations; U.S. Air Force; and, U.S. Army.

– – – –

Source: Global Security

Space

AFNS

Space Weather Team Readies For Upcoming Solar Max by, Ryan Hansen ( 55th Wing Public Affairs )

February 25, 2011

NEBRASKA, Offutt Air Force Base – February 25, 2011 – Solar Maximum may sound like the name of a super hero, but it’s certainly no comic book or 3-D movie. Solar Maximum is actually the name for the Sun’s most active period in the solar cycle, consistently producing solar emissions, solar flares and sun spots.

For a little background on the sun’s activities, the star goes through roughly 11-year cycles of where it is very active and also relatively calm. The Sun’s last Solar Maximum occurred in 2000 and it is expected to awaken from its current solar minimum and get more active this year.

According to the members of the 2nd Weather Squadron ( WS ), an active sun can cause all sorts of problems for us. “Solar weather plays a huge part in the warfighter’s mission,” said Staff Sgt. Matthew Money, a forecaster with the space weather flight. “Impacts from solar weather can cause radio blackouts, satellite communication failure, satellite orbit changes, satellite surface charging, or short circuits, and radar clutter.”

That is why the squadron’s worldwide space weather team of roughly 50 active-duty members, civilians and contractors continually analyze, forecast and provide alert notifications for the entire U.S. Department of Defense ( DoD ), as well as a slew of other government agencies.

“When ‘space weather’ causes impacts to earth that meet or exceed warning thresholds our end users are informed within minutes,” said Staff Sgt. Jonathan Lash, space weather flight forecaster. We send out warning bulletins through a computerized distribution system, [ and ] we have other graphical products that show what happened in the past 6-hours around the globe as well as what we expect to happen in the upcoming 6-hours,” he said.

Members of the 2nd Weather Squadron [ OWS ] rely on five ( 5 ) ground-based Solar Observatories, as well as a network of satellites orbiting the earth, to accomplish their mission.

“There aren’t too many opportunities to be the Air Force’s sole provider of something,” said Lt. Colonel Jim Jones, 2nd Weather Squadron [ OWS ] Commander. “In this case, the mission is unique to the entire DoD.”

Solar Observatories are ‘strategically placed’ around the globe in such places, as:

– Australia; – Hawaii; – Italy; – Massachusetts; and, – New Mexico.

They include both optical telescopes and radio telescopes and ensure the Weather Squadron always has one eye, or ear, on the sun.

“The optical telescope network monitors solar surface features,” said Master Sgt. Shane McIntire, the space weather flight chief. “It automatically tracks the sun and directs light to the instruments, which collect data and are controlled by computers. It scans specific regions at a rate of at least twice per minute.”

Through filtered lenses space weather analysts are able to perform flare patrol and view sunspots to determine the magnetic complexity of the region.

“The telescope has special filters that isolate a single optical wavelength,” said Master Sgt. Shane Siebert, who leads the Detachment 4 solar observatory for the 2nd Weather Squadron at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. This wavelength ( 6563 angstroms ) is called ‘hydrogen alpha’ ( H-Alpha ) where the majority of solar activity occurs,” he said, “Analysts monitor this wavelength from sunrise to sunset, and are looking for specific signatures that may lead to solar flares and other adverse activity.”

But not all of the sun’s activities can be captured using optical telescopes.

Some events have a unique radio-frequency signature that can also be measured.

Using a mixture of technology from the 1970s to the present day, radio observatories are able to monitor frequencies in the 25 MhZ to 180 megahertz range, as well as eight ( 8 ) other discrete frequencies. Their digitized output is collected by a computer and then processed and analyzed for solar activity.

“We actually are able to detect the specific strength at a given radio frequency,” said Major Bradley Harbaugh, who commands the Detachment 5 solar observatory for the 2nd Weather Squadron [ OWS ] at Palehua, Hawaii. What we detect are energetic solar emissions in [ specific ] frequency bands or ranges. When detected, we [ are able to describe ] the start time, duration, intensity and type of solar emission. This helps describe the potential impacts by identifying the characteristics of what may impact earth,” he said.

Identifying these solar emissions is crucial to warfighter communication abilities.

“If there is solar energy that increases on your frequency, you can try to talk into your radio, but the noise from the sun will be stronger than your transmission, therefore drowning-out what you are saying,” Major Harbaugh said, “As an operator, you can increase your radio power to try and ‘out-broadcast’ the sun but you are also now broadcasting over a much larger area, making your transmission more susceptible to enemy detection. Therefore, the Sun’s impact must be a consideration when planning a mission.”

The Weather Squadron network of satellites includes those owned and operated by the U.S. Department of Defense ( DoD ), National Aeronautic and Space Administration ( NASA ) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) that include a combination of systems that are dedicated solely to space weather as well as a few utilizing space weather sensors.

“We gather a significant amount of data from satellites,” Sergeant McIntire said. “Imagery from [ satellites ] can augment the ground-based network, providing real-time monitoring of solar features at wavelengths that can’t be seen from the ground.”

Data from all of these sources combined, are continually pushed to the space weather operations center at the U.S. Air Force Weather Agency ( USAFWA ) here.

With this information in hand, the Weather Squadron can produce the most reliable space weather forecast possible, however even with all of this data, producing a space weather forecast is still much more difficult than creating one for terrestrial weather.

“Space weather is a terribly difficult science and it takes a lot of training and experience,” Colonel Jones said.

“Space weather forecasting is very reactive,” Sergeant Money said. “The ‘knowledge and tools are not quite up to par in order to do accurate forecasting’ like we do here on Earth.”

It is also important to note that today the world is much more reliant on space-based assets than they were during the last Solar Maximum, officials said. With cellphones, portable navigation devices and satellite television receivers, all part of our daily lives, a huge solar weather event could wreak havoc on quite a few different platforms.

“The impact of a solar storm in 2000 was probably not as great, due to the lower density of space technology, and the limited number of consumers utilizing the data,” Major Harbaugh said, “However, the ripple from a ‘major solar event now will more likely be felt across a much broader consumer base’ [ the public ] since there are many more assets and many more users of space data.”

However, with improved technology and an increased knowledge of the sun’s activities, the Weather Squadron ( WS ) is more prepared than ever for the upcoming Solar Maximum, Colonel Jones said. “Since the last solar maximum, we’ve upgraded most of our numerical models in terms of both their basic science and the data they ingest,” he said. “That’s a direct result of the advances in sensors and the technology that enables rapid data transfer. We can react faster and see farther than ever before.”

“We already have members within the unit developing forecast techniques based on signatures we see on the sensors,” Sergeant Money said.

So it’s a safe bet, that ‘the next 2-years’ will be ‘hectic’ for the 2nd Weather Squadron [ OWS ].

Their mission, to provide ‘situational awareness to key decision-makers’ will certainly keep ‘them’ busy.

“In the last 30-days alone ( February 2011 ), we’ve had [ more than 30 ] reportable [ solar ] energy events,” Major Harbaugh said. “The workload has ‘already increased’ and ‘will continue to do so’ for probably ‘the next 1-year’ or ’2-years’.”

“About 1-year ago, it was not uncommon for an analyst to only have one ( 1 ) very small Solar Region of the Sun to monitor,” Sergeant Siebert said. “Today, it is normal for analysts to keep fairly busy monitoring 4 Solar Regions to 6 Solar Regions. Studies, of the last Solar Maximum, show that typically 1-day included twenty-two ( 22 ) active Solar Regions – almost 4 times our current workload,” he added.

Regardless, Weather Squadron [ OWS ] ‘space weather’ analysts, forecasters and technicians globally are ready for the upcoming solar fury [ see, e.g. Solar Energetic Particle Event ], Colonel Jones said.

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The U.S. Air Force obviously needs ‘far-more’:

– More personnel for U.S. Air Force Weather Agency ( USAFWA ) Weather Group ( WXD ) Operational Weather Squadrons ( OWS ) effortings;

– Independent ’governing board’ or ‘blue ribbon watchdog committee’ overseeing an ’independent monitoring agency’ placing the U.S. Air Force Weather Agency ( AFWA ) and its USAF Air and Space Operations ( ASO ) under an independent ‘microscope’; and,

– Public Transparency notifications, would also be nice, but then…