Getting Ready for the Next Big Solar Storm

[Demeter]

Source: NASA SCIENCE NEWS

In Sept. 1859, on the eve of a below-average1 solar cycle, the sun unleashed one of the most powerful storms in centuries. The underlying flare was so unusual, researchers still aren't sure how to categorize it. The blast peppered Earth with the most energetic protons in half-a-millennium, induced electrical currents that set telegraph offices on fire, and sparked Northern Lights over Cuba and Hawaii...

As 2011 unfolds, the sun is once again on the eve of a below-average solar cycle—at least that’s what forecasters are saying. The "Carrington event" of 1859 (named after astronomer Richard Carrington, who witnessed the instigating flare) reminds us that strong storms can occur even when the underlying cycle is nominally weak.

In 1859 the worst-case scenario was a day or two without telegraph messages and a lot of puzzled sky watchers on tropical islands.

In 2011 the situation would be more serious. An avalanche of blackouts carried across continents by long-distance power lines could last for weeks to months as engineers struggle to repair damaged transformers. Planes and ships couldn’t trust GPS units for navigation. Banking and financial networks might go offline, disrupting commerce in a way unique to the Information Age. According to a 2008 report from the National Academy of Sciences, a century-class solar storm could have the economic impact of 20 hurricane Katrinas.

Read more: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/22jun_swef2011/

[Oceansaway]

1. thanks...n/t

[krispos42]

2. Looks like I'll need tinfoil for more than just my head! n/t

[AtheistCrusader]

5. I wouldn't attach an antenna to my head in that storm, if I were you.

[krispos42]

11. I don't know what could possibly go wrong

[X_Digger]

6. Yah, induction would make that tinfoil hat a bad idea :) n/t

[krispos42]

12. Not if I strapped a pan of Jiffy Pop onto my head!

Protection and a delicious snack at the same time!

[X_Digger]

13. Reminds me of holding up a flourescent light bulb to an antenna..

And watching it flicker as signals go out.

[krispos42]

14. Really?

I'll have to try that. would a compact fluorescent do the job or do I need one of those tubes?

[X_Digger]

15. Worth a try..

My dad was into CB radio, and he always had a little 18w bulb taped up next to his indoor antenna. Key the mic, and the light glowed.

[melm00se]

20. when I worked in radio

we had a florescent tube hanging over the transmitter which you could see from the booth.

It was an early warning device for transmitter issues. if that light went out the transmitter was down. too dim? power was dropping.

[Canuckistanian]

3. The Day the Sun Brought Darkness - NASA

On March 13, 1989 the entire province of Quebec, Canada suffered an electrical power blackout. Hundreds of blackouts occur in some part of North America every year. The Quebec Blackout was different, because this one was caused by a solar storm!

On Friday March 10, 1989 astronomers witnessed a powerful explosion on the sun. Within minutes, tangled magnetic forces on the sun had released a billion-ton cloud of gas. It was like the energy of thousands of nuclear bombs exploding at the same time. The storm cloud rushed out from the sun, straight towards Earth, at a million miles an hour. The solar flare that accompanied the outburst immediately caused short-wave radio interference, including the jamming of radio signals from Radio Free Europe into Russia. It was thought that the signals had been jammed by the Kremlin, but it was only the sun acting up!

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/sun_darkness.html



Check out the animation:
http://www.nasa.gov/mpg/142652main_pre-launch-animation2-3.mpg

[slackmaster]

4. This could turn out to be worse than Y2K

:scared:

[Demeter]

7. Anything is worse than Y2K

Y2K was a paranoid's fantasy. Which never came true.

[RebelOne]

17. Thank goodness it never happened, but the prospect of it frightened me, and I am

very skeptical of scare tactics like that, but I even began to stock up on canned goods.

[mopinko]

21. it was a great job producer, tho. good jobs.

i have heard it blamed for the .com bust because so many good tech jobs disappeared at once.

[Demeter]

26. It did clear out a lot of obsolete software

and that was a good thing.

[slackmaster]

24. Year 2038 promises to dwarf any previous crisis in all of history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

[Scottybeamer70]

8. I don't suppose we

can do a whole lot about what the sun does or doesn't do. I believe we are a captive audience.

[24601]

16. Just another denier! Obviously this Solar crap is somehow caused

by irresponsible humans. Virtually all scientists agree with me and any who don't aren't credible. :rofl:

[Devil_Fish]

18. non-sence! we can will call it the War on Sol. Just wait, it will cost billions. NT

[Javaman]

19. I just hate the sun so much!

lol

[leftyohiolib]

9. atms will go off-line also. so...

[BeHereNow]

10. Solar flares or not, it's always a good idea to keep some cash around.

Extra water, non perishables- medications, extra pet food if you have fur people
under your roof.

I don't think most people consider the ramifications of an interruption
of the things we take for granted; ATM machines, gas pumps, grocery store registers
and all the modern "conveniences."

Ever see the movie "The Trigger Effect?"
Trailer here:
http://www.blockbuster.com/browse/catalog/movie/trailer/93699

It's sort of silly as movies go, but it does make you think.

BHN

[snooper2]

23. Why would ATM go offline?

Solar flare is going to affect the copper under the ground? :eyes:

[TrogL]

25. Anything with chips is going to be affected

ATM's, cars, medical equipment, chip-embedded credit cards. I just had a look at my desk and about the only thing on it that doesn't have a chip in it is my coffee cup.

[originalpckelly]

30. Not entirely accurate. Inside the field, it's really just the movement of earth's magnetic field...

that is of concern. It will likely swing about wildly in such an event, and that's what causes the induction of electricity. The longer the conductor, the worse off you are from an induction perspective. All the machines would be fine, it's the power grid and the communication system that will go to shit.

In space it's bad to have computers un-shielded, because protons are released in these events, and they will ionize any electronics causing short circuits.

[rayofreason]

29. ATMs rely on communications satellites...

...since most of our com networks have some satellite links in them. In May 1998, the loss of Galaxy IV had a significant impact, and that was 12 years ago. Today we are even more dependent on communications satellites, so if a bunch were lost or disabled because of space weather, communications networks worldwide would be significantly degraded.

[JAnthony]

22. Now keep in mind that this needs to be factored with ..

This OTHER thread and video...yesterday

"Earth facing mini-ice age!!" say the media. Now for the science....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=594351&mesg_id=594351

In short, to save you time, NO "mini ice age" coming...

[FrodosPet]

27. This is something that DID happen in 1859

"

Back then, there were only a few hundred, at most a few thousand, miles of copper wire feeding some "heavy duty" telegraph stations, and it zapped that system.

Now there are how many miles of wire, acting like the coils of a generator, and ultimately feeding semiconductors with device sizes of a few molecules?

The big concern is the main transformers. If several of those blow, large parts of the countries affected could be without power for months, even years.

http://www.empactamerica.org/solar_emp.php

"The solar wind will have a magnetic property or bursts of energy that can, in a large geomagnetic storm, rapidly change the magnetic field around the earth’s core leading to induced currents of energy in long metallic conductors (wires, rails, etc.). Transformers in the Grid used to step up or step down power voltages are connected to these wires and are subject to damage in the cores where wire copper windings can melt from the induction strong of strong magnetic fields in the transformers from the increased current in the wires caused by EMP. There are some 300 key transformers that are used in the initial segments of the U.S. Electric Grid. There are few spares and replacement manufacture can take over a year under normal conditions. Considering that these units are not manufactured in the U.S. replacements could take much longer to obtain, if ever."

Another great reason to go solar photovoltaic and get "off the grid". The relatively short wires in a local system will not be subject to the huge current induction the way high voltage lines are.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

28. make sure that nuclear plants' control systems are protected

[originalpckelly]

31. That is actually a good observation.

I think they require offsite power to keep operating, and lack of it, which is what would happen all over the place, would probably cause the reactor's to SCRAM (for BWRs at least). And diesel generators would run out of fuel eventually, and batts would run out. We could face a bunch of Fukushima's all over the United States.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

33. I wonder has anyone thought of protecting them?

[calimary]

32. Kick!

Pretty mindblowing!