Prepare for solar flares next year: Scientist

Astronomers at the Bandung Institute of Technology's Bosscha Observatory in Lembang, West Java, are watching the Sun in anticipation of a peak in solar flares expected between September 2012 and early 2013.

Observatory chief Hakim L. Malasan, said the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recorded large solar flares between Dec. 25 and 26.

“It is hard indeed to foretell when a tectonic earthquake or a hurricane is going to happen. But we can see [imminent flares] from their symptoms,” he told The Jakarta Post in Bandung, West Java, on Thursday.

The energy released by solar flares might trigger disturbances in the Earth's ionosphere that could affect electrical devices, he said.

“Such sudden ionosphere disturbances can disrupt everything from communications to navigation to electromagnetic waves. Cell phone signals might go dead all of a sudden, all radio and TV broadcasts might be disturbed and many other things can happen,” Malasan said.

Most concerning was the chance that the flares might damage the tens of thousands of satellites in orbit 800 to 1,000 kilometers above the Earth's surface, Malasan said.

High-energy particles from solar flares reportedly caused disturbances to the magnetic field in several US states in 1998, while the US’ UARSS satellite recently fell to the Earth in California due to solar wind damage.

“If the solar wind can cause a satellite to free fall like that, imagine what solar flares can do,” Malasan said.

He added that Indonesia was among the nations least likely to be damaged by solar flares, as the Earth's magnetic field, along which charged particles travel, was at its highest over the equator.