Posted on 07/12/2012 9:25:40 PM PDT by Kartographer
"It's one of the biggest natural disaster threats to the developed world," said John Kappenman, an electrical engineer who specializes in solar storms and the impact they would have on the Earth.
"We've been doing nothing in regards to understanding the true severity of these storms, in fact, we are just building bigger and bigger antennae that makes us more closely coupled with severe space weather events."
Space weather emanating from the Sun affects humans all of the time, we just don't notice it unless it disrupts our smartphones or puts on a pretty northern lights show.
Experts warn though that at some point in the future an eruption of radiation and energy from the sun will be so massive, when hits the Earth it could send modern civilization into a long and deadly electrical blackout by frying all of the interconnected power grids.
"If you lose electricity you lose the ability to pump and create clean water, treat and pump sewage, to maintain any perishable foods, all perishable medications, and you lose the ability to manufacture new things, like replacement parts for the things that were damaged," Kappenman warns. "The phone and Internet systems are only backed up by a few days worth of standby generation with very limited fuel.
"The ability to pump fuel is lost, the ability to produce new fuel is lost. Transportation systems would be severely compromised, if not totally lost. It's something we really don't want to experience on a wide scale."
(Excerpt) Read more at torontosun.com ...
Preppers’ PING!!
So could 4 more years of Obama!
This is a Type O CME according to https://www.facebook.com/nasaswc
Not sure what side it would hit, or if it would hit directly or clip the planet.
not again...
It happened before and it could happen again. You may want to check out the following link and I hope it works.
http://mondovista.com/endtimex.html
“Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die”
Electronics is one thing, I don't think nano-tubes will have anything to do with hardening the power-grid.
Parts of Canada's grid were taken down by flares in 1973 and 1989.
But the big flare was in 1859.
That doesn’t take into account the recent calendar find that is more complete.
Can you add me to Preppers’ PING list?
Meh. Doom porn. Unless there is some dynamic in the direction/ duration/ whatever of this flare that will make it especially destructive, it isn’t so much compared to the flares of 2003- 04
Go here & scroll down to A Record Breaking X- Class Solar Flare, 05 Nov 2003.
http://spacew.com/astroalert.html
That one was literally off the charts & had to be estimated (extrapolated) because GOES could only measure up to an X17.4. It was estimated to be between X30 & X40.
(The Astro Alerts page only goes back to 2002, but 2002 through 2005 were really active)
(I don’t mean this post to be dismissive- just that we’ve been there & done that & we’re still here to tell about it. Maybe I was all caught up in the prospect of getting to see the aurora, but I don’t recall any problems with our computers, car radios, or cell phones. Obviously, anything in the upper atmosphere is going to be affected)
Chicken Little? Doomsday?
Well, these are signs and wonders, right?
If you go back to 1859,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859
THIS one would probably hurt if it happened in our technological world today. Fortunately, records in Antarctic ice show that it might have been a 1-3 in 1000 year event. Meaning, it might happen in a few hours, or not for at least several hundred years.
Why doesn’t Algore and his universe-controlling, enviroloonies do something? They say that human beings can control this kind of stuff! They need to get with the program!
It’s the ultimate in being fired.
It’s the ultimate in getting fired.
The most recent X-class flare was a few hours ago. Lower Xs aren't very unusual at all.
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