Japanese Earthquake Predicted a Month Ago

Predictions were based on calculation related to solar activity; more specifically Coronal Mass Ejections in the northern hemisphere.

By Luis R. Miranda
The Real Agenda
March 15, 2011

A couple of days ago, astrophysicist and meteorologist Piers Corbyn, who conducts weather, climate and tectonic plates studies based on solar activity supported the version on the video by saying not only that solar activity is part of the cause of the current ‘planetary unrest’, but also that the Super Full Moon (the moon is passing by closer to Earth in March) is also contributing to the such geological and magnetic activity.

“Christchurch, South Island New Zealand was struck by a damaging shallow level earthquake on 21 Feb and is suffering severe aftershocks,” cites Weatheraction.com.  “This event follows the world wide increase in volcanism and earthquakes in the last year or two and confirms the general statistical fact that more – and more serious – earthquakes, and volcanic activity, tend to occur around solar cycle minima.”

Corbyn’s description of events previous to the largest snow storms on the northern hemispheres this winter was also accounted for on his website.  “Major storms are also associated with solar proton events and significantly we had important solar proton events on January 28 just before our predicted world double whammy of the simultaneous mega blizzard USA and mega Tropical Cyclone Yasi hitting Queensland”.  Both Corbyn and the Solar Watcher base their observations and conclusions on solar activity.

The 9.1 -upgraded from 8.1- earthquake that hit Japan lifted the continent by eight feet and moved the planet’s axis by 10 inches or about 25 centimeters.  According to the data presented by Solar Watcher dated February 17-20, other places like south western California, India and New Zealand could be at risk of being hit by a significant event like the one experienced in Japan.

The tectonic events, says Solar Watcher, are due to major solar activity, characterized by X class solar flares occurring both in the northern and southern hemispheres of the sun.  According to the video, solar activity has been increasing and some of that activity has been more directly facing planet Earth (in the northern part of the Sun, 24-26 degrees north latitude), which makes its effects more meaningful.  “Once the solar spot moves from the Earth-facing position, we’re gonna be receiving more solar winds”, said the author, who warned the most likely region on planet Earth to experience a serious earthquake would be the Japanese islands.

Watch the video below.

In a more recent video, dated March 14-19, Solar Watcher issued another warming with lots of specificity for the Japanese islands, where it is believed another important event possibly two- will take place and could have magnitudes of around 7.5.  The reason? The symmetry between the areas where the sun is experiencing important activity, which according to the author is a cross-coronal area and the location of Japan, makes it very likely the next quake will hit that area of the planet. Equal attention is given to a possible event at or around the Saint Andreas fault.

Solar winds that currently blow at about 598 kilometers -up from 400km/sec- will decrease by about 200km/sec, which is the moment when Earth will more likely experience another major quake.  Such event could also occur in the vicinity of Baja California, moving down to the Saint Andreas fault at latitudes 29-33 degrees north.  Along with the pacific coast of the United States, the author southern Japan and southern Iran as well as Eastern China.  A major event could also spark activity at the La Palma Volcano in the Canary Islands.  This volcano has kept everyone’s attention due to the potential consequences an eruption there could have.

See the complete March 14-19 Watch below.  Subscribe to solar Watcher.

According to NASA after several years without a single X-flares, the sun produced two powerful explosions in a month; one on February 15th and the other on March 9th. The current activity is part of the beginning of ” the sun’s regular 11-year cycle and confirms that Solar Cycle 24 is indeed heating up”.  Additional activity is expected progressively as the Sun walks toward the so called solar maximum which experts see happening around 2013.

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The Big Red Bear is Waking up and It Will Affect Us All

NASA Science

Coronal Mass Ejection

Earth and space are about to come into contact in a way that’s new to human history. To make preparations, authorities in Washington DC are holding a meeting: The Space Weather Enterprise Forum at the National Press Club on June 8th.

Richard Fisher, head of NASA’s Heliophysics Division, explains what it’s all about:

“The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity. At the same time, our technological society has developed an unprecedented sensitivity to solar storms. The intersection of these two issues is what we’re getting together to discuss.”

The National Academy of Sciences framed the problem two years ago in a landmark report entitled “Severe Space Weather Events—Societal and Economic Impacts.” It noted how people of the 21st-century rely on high-tech systems for the basics of daily life. Smart power grids, GPS navigation, air travel, financial services and emergency radio communications can all be knocked out by intense solar activity. A century-class solar storm, the Academy warned, could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina.

Much of the damage can be mitigated if managers know a storm is coming. Putting satellites in ‘safe mode’ and disconnecting transformers can protect these assets from damaging electrical surges. Preventative action, however, requires accurate forecasting—a job that has been assigned to NOAA.

“Space weather forecasting is still in its infancy, but we’re making rapid progress,” says Thomas Bogdan, director of NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado.

Bogdan sees the collaboration between NASA and NOAA as key. “NASA’s fleet of heliophysics research spacecraft provides us with up-to-the-minute information about what’s happening on the sun. They are an important complement to our own GOES and POES satellites, which focus more on the near-Earth environment.”

Among dozens of NASA spacecraft, he notes three of special significance: STEREO, SDO and ACE.

STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) is a pair of spacecraft stationed on opposite sides of the sun with a combined view of 90% of the stellar surface. In the past, active sunspots could hide out on the sun’s farside, invisible from Earth, and then suddenly emerge over the limb spitting flares and CMEs. STEREO makes such surprise attacks impossible.

SDO (the Solar Dynamics Observatory) is the newest addition to NASA’s fleet. Just launched in February, it is able to photograph solar active regions with unprecedented spectral, temporal and spatial resolution. Researchers can now study eruptions in exquisite detail, raising hopes that they will learn how flares work and how to predict them. SDO also monitors the sun’s extreme UV output, which controls the response of Earth’s atmosphere to solar variability.

Bogdan’s favorite NASA satellite, however, is an old one: the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) launched in 1997. “Where would we be without it?” he wonders. ACE is a solar wind monitor. It sits upstream between the sun and Earth, detecting solar wind gusts, billion-ton CMEs, and radiation storms as much as 30 minutes before they hit our planet.

“ACE is our best early warning system,” says Bogdan. “It allows us to notify utility and satellite operators when a storm is about to hit.”

NASA spacecraft were not originally intended for operational forecasting—”but it turns out that our data have practical economic and civil uses,” notes Fisher. “This is a good example of space science supporting modern society.”

2010 marks the 4th year in a row that policymakers, researchers, legislators and reporters have gathered in Washington DC to share ideas about space weather. This year, forum organizers plan to sharpen the focus on critical infrastructure protection. The ultimate goal is to improve the nation’s ability to prepare, mitigate, and respond to potentially devastating space weather events.

“I believe we’re on the threshold of a new era in which space weather can be as influential in our daily lives as ordinary terrestrial weather.” Fisher concludes. “We take this very seriously indeed.”

For more information about the meeting, please visit the Space Weather Enterprise Forum home page at  http://www.nswp.gov/swef/swef_2010.html