# Forecast and reports of solar flares

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forecast-and-reports-of-solar-flares/595611>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 8, 2011, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forecast-and-reports-of-solar-flares/595611 "2011-09-08T13:53:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forecast-and-reports-of-solar-flares/595611/1 "2011-09-08T13:53:15Z")

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We can read in the news stories such as [If a flare is aimed at Earth, this radiation can disrupt or swamp radio signals, affecting communication and navigation satellites. | Space.com](http://www.space.com/12861-nasa-solar-flares-double-burst-sdo-spacecraft.html) but I don’t find any specific forecast or reports. I remember a news story of solar flares causing a significant power outage somewhere at some time in the recent past.

Is there some website that forecasts that solar flares ‘are expected to disrupt’ something or that solar flares did in fact disrupt something?

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**Author:** ![srzss05](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@srzss05](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/srzss05)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forecast-and-reports-of-solar-flares/595611/2 "2011-09-08T14:04:07Z")

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[http://spaceweather.com/](http://spaceweather.com/)

Though it doesn’t seem to be well organized.

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**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forecast-and-reports-of-solar-flares/595611/3 "2011-09-08T14:22:45Z")

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NOAA’s [Space Weather Prediction Center](http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/) has a [alerts and forecasts](http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/Data/index.html#alerts) page.

In general, predicting space weather is an even more complex scenario than predicting Earth-based weather; we don’t have accurate enough models and not nearly enough data to create a space weather forecast that’s comparable in accuracy to an Earth-weather forecast. Its being worked on, but as with anything, it takes a lot of time, effort, and input from different groups.

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**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forecast-and-reports-of-solar-flares/595611/4 "2011-09-08T15:45:23Z")

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effects on the earth are often about 3 days after a flare occurs and is observed, there is then often some warning of potentially harmful effects.