Space Scientist Pål Brekke
‘Solar Flares and Storms: Should Our Technology-Based Society be Concerned?’
The Norwegian Space Agency (Norsk Romsenter)
Tuesday, October 22
The Special Events Committee has the pleasure of inviting you to the Norwegian Space Agency for a fascinating lecture on solar flares and storms and how they affect our technology-based society. The lecture will be illustrated with pictures and photos.
The Sun – which is the source of life on Earth and photosynthesis in plants and living creatures – appears to the naked eye to be a static and glowing yellow disc in the sky. However, it is a stormy star, expelling flares, creating Northern Lights, and influencing space weather that has a direct impact on our daily lives.
The magnetic field of large active regions on the Sun often becomes unstable and can result in violent explosions in the solar atmosphere called ‘flares.’ These eruptions, if directed toward the Earth, can disrupt telephone and data signals of revolving spatial satellites, affect electric currents in power cables, compasses, radiation inside airplanes, and GPS navigation for civil and military systems, interrupt radio communication, increase corrosion in pipelines, and knock out ATM and bank services, to mention a few alarming consequences.
To help explain the disruptive consequences of powerful solar flares, space scientist Pål Brekke from the Norwegian Space Agency (NOSA) – who earlier spoke to us about the Northern Lights – will explain how these can affect our daily lives.
DATE/TIME: Tuesday, October 22 at 11:45 (for 12:00). The meeting starts at 12:00 sharp. Please be there on time. The lecture will last about an hour.
SIGN UP: To Sonia Mykletun before October 11
PLACE: The Norwegian Space Agency at Sjølyst Møtesenter,
Drammensveien 165, 0277 Oslo, at Skøyen.
To get there, walk along Drammensveien away from Skøyen train station, walk past Elkjøp and Power and then towards the Circle K petrol station. Committee members will direct you along the way to the entrance of Drammensveien 165. Please see the map and photo below.
PRICE: NOK 35,- for a gift for the lecturer. Please pay only after you have received confirmation of registration for this event. Also give your mobile number so that we can reach you on short notice.
