flare

A massive solar storm is hurtling toward Earth, threatening to disrupt communications, GPS, power grids, and airline flights.

A solar flare last night (see video below) created a coronal mass ejection, or the release of a burst of charged particles, from the sun's atmosphere. The storm--the largest in five years--is expected to rain a torrent of charged particles on the Earth early tomorrow morning, mostly in northern areas, according to forecasters at the federal government's Space Weather Prediction Center.

The storm, which has produced a radiation event that rated an S3, or strong, designation on the NOAA's … Read more

High in the northern hemisphere was the place to be for stargazers this week as a solar radiation storm created spectacular auroras.

Chad Blakely of Lights Over Lapland took this time-lapse video Tuesday night when the blast of matter from the sun's atmosphere was most intense on Earth.

A specialist in aurora photography, he told CNET that he shot the video at the Abisko National Park in Sweden and that it was an incredible show. He shot this video over the course of three hours with a group of other photographers along with a few others this week.

The … Read more

A solar radiation storm raining down on the Earth right now could bring a treat to stargazers in the northern continental U.S.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that the moderate geomagnetic storm has not caused significant impact to communications systems. But the storm could provide bright Northern and Southern lights tonight as far south as New York and Oregon today.

An eruption on the sun Sunday night caused a portion of its atmosphere to hurtle down toward Earth at about 5 million miles an hour, arriving at about 10 a.m. this morning. The arrival of these … Read more

The Earth is being bombarded with the strongest blast of radiation from the sun since 2003, an event that could cause isolated disruptions to communications and air travel.

The National Weather Service's Space Weather Prediction Center on Tuesday morning published a map showing the solar radiation storm touching the upper atmosphere in the Earth's poles.

"The red that can be seen at the poles is where the energetic particles enter and where airliners and spacecraft, should try to avoid," according to the agency which is based in Boulder, Colorado.

On Sunday night, a solar flare caused … Read more

People who wouldn't normally see auroras are being treated to stunning sights today thanks to the largest solar radiation storm since 2005.

The storm is creating colorful auroras throughout the North and South Poles that stretched to countries that don't normally see the lights, such as England. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has maps on its Web site of the likelihood of seeing a nearby aurora.

This video by Helge Mortensen shows the aurora borealis at Tromvik Norway:

This video by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows a long duration flare erupting on the Sun and sending … Read more

A fastball of high-energy matter from the Sun is blasting toward the Earth and is expected to cause the largest solar radiation storm since 2005.

Late last night, a solar flare caused a coronal mass ejection, or the release of a burst of charged particles, from the sun's atmosphere, and it's heading toward the Earth at 1,400 miles per second, according to NASA.

The concern is that a magnetic storm from the solar flare could affect GPS systems and some communications systems, especially in higher altitudes in the north. NASA estimates that the storm could reach the … Read more

We're getting so many reassurances from NASA these days that the world is not about to be destroyed by some space-borne phenomenon that I'm starting to wonder if there's something the space agency isn't telling us.

Aside from falling satellites--one of which apparently threatened to rain space junk down perhaps a little too close to a couple of heavily populated Chinese cities--there was that aircraft-carrier-size asteroid that didn't, repeat didn't, sideswipe the Earth this past week (though it got closer than the moon).

Now there's the specter of a giant solar flare turning the Earth into a crispy critter sometime next year. But don't worry, our friends at NASA cheerfully assure us in a recent post on the agency's Web site, this version of the apocalypse isn't likely to occur either.… Read more

Fredflare.com sells all manner of fashionable tech-cessories, including USB turntables, LEGO Wii controllers, and the best-selling iPlunger phone stand. But the latest addition to the Web store is more than just eye-candy--it's a pair of earbud headphones made to look and smell like classic Gummi Bears.

Offered in blue, pink, and green flavors, the Scented Gummi Bear Earbuds feature stereo sound, a 4-foot cable and a standard 3.5mm plug at the end.

We don't expect the $18 headphones to challenge our favorite earbuds, but we're sure they're at least worth a couple puzzled looks on the subway.

More pictures of the Scented Gummi Bear Earbuds by Fred Flare after the jump.… Read more

A videographer who's brought the distinctive look of high dynamic range (HDR) photography to video has released an iPhone app that tackles the technology.

Flare debuted today for $1.99 on the Apple App Store. It uses an image-processing algorithm to try to perform HDR duties such as bringing out details otherwise lost in the murk of shadowy areas. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't match up to the HDR video that developer Alaric Cole produced with two Canon 5D Mark II SLR cameras and a beam splitter as part of Soviet Montage Productions. It is, after all, just a single lowly mobile phone image sensor.

"The algorithm is an adaptation of what I wrote for the original Soviet Montage clip," Cole said. "I'm definitely not claiming this is anything like what we did with two 5D's, but I have spent over 1700 hours on this project, so it is doing something ;)"

The app comes with an slider to adjust the strength of the effect. For a gander at what it does on its default settings, check out this video of Flare for the iPhone my colleague Josh Lowensohn shot this morning on his iPhone 4 in the glamorous CNET offices. (Guess who has the Andy Warhol-Marilyn Monroe print?) To see it at a punchier maxed-out setting, here's another video. (Guess who has the space invaders on the office door?) … Read more