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On March 12, Largely Unnoticed, We Dodged the Apocalypse
thenewamerican ^ | 03/26/2023

Posted on 03/26/2023 7:38:29 AM PDT by devane617

“We only have 12 years to save the planet,” we may hear. “Man may only have 10 years left if we don’t ________” (fill in the doomsayer prescription). The truth, though, is that we don’t know if humanity has still one year or six months — or less.

And this reality was brought home by something that occurred March 12.

It was on that day, not two weeks ago, that there was a huge solar eruption. It was perhaps 100 times more powerful than the Carrington Event in 1859, which rendered inoperable a good part of the “Victorian Internet”: telegraph lines. So why was The New American still able to publish this article, and how can you now access it?

We dodged a bullet because 3/12’s event occurred on the Sun’s far side.

Still, though, it was powerful enough to affect Earth.

NASA reported on the event, writing March 14 that a “massive eruption of solar material, known as a coronal mass ejection or CME, was detected escaping from the Sun at 11:36 p.m. EDT on March 12, 2023.”

American Thinker’s J.R. Dunn points out that this was just like the Carrington Event — only more so. As History wrote of the 1859 occurrence (as presented by Dunn):

(Excerpt) Read more at thenewamerican.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 1859; 202303; 20230313; astronomy; carringtonevent; catastrophism; cme; coronalmassejection; howitends; science; sida; sun
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Very interesting read. I suspect this may happen.
1 posted on 03/26/2023 7:38:29 AM PDT by devane617
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To: devane617

Suspicious0bservers, please check in...


2 posted on 03/26/2023 7:43:39 AM PDT by null and void (While our enemies are on a war footing, we are pussyfooting!)
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To: null and void

[NASA reported on the event, writing March 14 that a “massive eruption of solar material, known as a coronal mass ejection or CME, was detected escaping from the Sun at 11:36 p.m. EDT on March 12, 2023.”]

How do we steer it towards the WEF meetings......?

Asking for a friend.


3 posted on 03/26/2023 7:50:35 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: devane617

later


4 posted on 03/26/2023 7:50:45 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Two Words: BANANA REPUBLIC!)
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To: devane617; FrogMom; dayglored; Conan the Librarian; McGruff; TornadoAlley3; Eagles6; Cedar; ...
Ping Me When the Internet Goes Down ping

If anyone wants on or off the Ping Me When the Internet Goes Down pinglist, kindly FReepmail me. Thanks!

5 posted on 03/26/2023 7:51:21 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: devane617

[[ The truth, though, is that we don’t know if humanity has still one year or six months]]

oh yes we do- we have a guaranteed 1007 and 1/2 years left, likely even more than that. The bible guarantees it. This earth will not dissappear, nor burn up, nor die for at least that much longer, nor will people dissappear from the face of the earth. They will be reigning with christ during the millenia, and the unsaved will be serving christ and peaceful for those 1000 years.

After that, then yes, this old earth is in peril as God will create a new heaven and earth.

Of course the climate change alarmists don’t beleive the bible, so they continue with their ignorant predictions of doom.


6 posted on 03/26/2023 7:58:35 AM PDT by Bob434
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To: devane617
Once ... destroyed, all power would vanish. Industry would grind to a halt. Massive amounts of data, including almost all financial data, would simply disappear. All methods of communication beyond voice range would no longer exist. It wouldn’t be a matter of waiting to be rescued by a government of any sort. Government would have shrunk to little more than a notion. The very tools on which relief, and even recovery, depend would simply have vanished. The consequences beggar the imagination. A new Dark Age would have been the best option to expect.

The reason John Kerry and Al Gore and their fellow idiots aren't screaming about this is there's no way for corrupt silly vile 'elites' to make money OR power off this - plus they're too stupid to understand the carrington effect.

7 posted on 03/26/2023 8:15:19 AM PDT by GOPJ (When Morning Joe's sycophants say "My Democracy" it sounds like Gollum saying "my precious")
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To: devane617

God’s mercy endures forever!


8 posted on 03/26/2023 8:18:54 AM PDT by Theophilus (It's fake and defective)
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To: devane617

“It’ll be 1859 times 100.”

“You mean...?”

“That’s right: 185,900.”


9 posted on 03/26/2023 8:20:08 AM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: BenLurkin

Quick, please add me to “Ping me when the internet goes down”, before it goes down. I’ll send an ack as soons as it’s up.


10 posted on 03/26/2023 8:24:38 AM PDT by Theophilus (It's fake and defective)
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To: BradyLS

I jumped aboard the telegraph
And trabbled down the riber
De lectric fluid magnified
And killed five hundred [******].


11 posted on 03/26/2023 8:27:37 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit.)
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To: devane617

Wow.

“If it [3/12’s CME] had been facing in our direction, if the earth had borne the full brunt of that blast, we can scarcely imagine the results. It’s likely that all operating electrical systems would have been immediately destroyed, the same as the telegraph systems in 1859.

Any active electronic instruments — and possibly even those that happened to be shut down — would have been fried, transformed into useless hunks of plastic, metal, and silicon. “


12 posted on 03/26/2023 8:38:07 AM PDT by plain talk
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To: devane617

Would both Hemispheres be equally affected? If not that would cause some interesting results.


13 posted on 03/26/2023 8:43:59 AM PDT by Starstruck ( Living life, Binge watching re-runs of actual history.)
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To: devane617
The thing about the Carrington event is that we don't know how common they are throughout history?

Are they a 1 in 25 year, 1 in 50 year, 1 in 100 year, or 1 in 1,000 year event?

All we really know is there hasn't been another Carrington level event to strike earth since 1859.

14 posted on 03/26/2023 8:56:10 AM PDT by fso301
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To: devane617

“We Dodged the Apocalypse”

A CME will be far from the apocaplypse, even one 100 times bigger than the Carrington event.

The physics of a CME and how it impacts our technology are a bit of a technical deep dive, but I’ll do my best.

A CME is not like an “EMP” of Hollywood. A CME will not impact your electronics, it will not keep your car from starting. It’s possible to minimize damage from it.

The reason the telegraph stations of 1867 caught fire - or in some case continued to function despite being disconnected from their battery banks is complicated, but here’s why it manifested like that back in the day.

A CME impacts the earth when the charged particles from the sun hit our geomagnetic field - and “move” them. When you move the geomagnetic field you generate a very low-frequency circulating current in the earth - it may travel hundreds of miles beneath the surface. The net effect on the grid is that the ground potential at a particular geographic location may change relative to another location on the earth.

If you have telegraph stations that may be hundreds of miles apart - a “quasi-DC” current will flow (basically very low frequency - a fraction of a hertz) - and it could be a substantial current. So if this current dumps into a battery station - it exceeds the capacity of the batteries and generate a voltage that may spark and create fires. That’s what happened in 1867.

Today, if you have two transmission substations that are hundreds, even thousands of miles apart, a current will also flow from a substation where the ground potential is high, to where the ground potential is low. This, too, could be a substantial current.

How this causes damage is when a particular type of transformer (commonly in use in the grid) called an “autotransformer” conducts the DC current through its windings - offsetting the magnetic core around which windings surround asymmetrically - and being precisely engineered devices - this causes problems. One half of a sine wave may be unaffected, but the other half goes into “saturation” due to the magnetic core offset. This causes an abrupt “clipping” of the sine wave - and that means it creates harmonics on the power grid, and dumps a percentage of the sine wave as heat in the core.

Transmission lines carry a lot of power. A transformer may normally operate at a very high efficiency. When it is in “half-cycle saturation” it will operate at a much much lower efficiency - and the difference gets dumped into the core which is not designed to dissipate this much heat. This heat builds up quickly and can quickly damage the transformer, even set it ablaze.

That’s a significant problem, but it’s not an “electronics-destroying EMP”.

However, not every transmission substation will be subject to this impact. Today, things like “GIC” (the DC current on a transmission line during a CME event) can be monitored. It can be blocked if one puts measures in in advance. It can also be shut off, if one monitors it closely, as we are able to do now.

The other impact of a CME is to satellites. One way satellite operators respond to a CME is to align the satellites solar panels so they are “edge on” to the CME to protect them from degradation and damage from charged particles. Unfortunately this is the worst-case for generating power for the satellite - so unless they have sufficient battery power, they will quickly have to go into a “power save” mode. This is one reason why GPS gets interrupted during a CME, as well as other satellite communications.

One other communications-related impact is with undersea cables. High-speed communications rely on fiber-optic relays. For undersea cables, these have to be powered. Usually on both ends of a cable. These ends are obviously thousands of miles apart - so if the end points (or any relays/repeaters along the way) have a difference in ground potential, it is possible to cause damage to an undersea cable, if it is not properly designed to protect against this.

So let’s look at the worst case for a CME: Some power transmission substations may be damaged. Some transformers attached to power generation stations may be damaged. Some satellite services will be disrupted for a period of time. Some undersea cables may be damaged.

Given that some warning will be given due to continuous monitoring of the sun and solar flare activity, there is a good chance we will be able to respond before a CME hits the earth. There are lots of potential responses - and some are likely to be disruptive, but we can avoid the worst long-term consequences if we are willing to take those actions.

Bad? Yeah, probably. Apocalyptic? Probably not if we are not stupid about it.


15 posted on 03/26/2023 8:57:54 AM PDT by RFEngineer
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To: null and void
You bet…

The show is just beginning.

16 posted on 03/26/2023 9:12:47 AM PDT by Taylor42 (How can people be so stupid?)
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To: devane617

Too bad it didn’t happen.


17 posted on 03/26/2023 9:35:58 AM PDT by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
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To: devane617

God may not be so gracious next time.

I consider it a warning shot.

God does not bring judgment without multiple warnings and calls for repentance. He would rather forgive and restore than judge, but when people refuse to listen, then it becomes no choice. Deal with the evil or let it continue to destroy lives and the world. And as we are seeing, there are no depths to the evil among us that the left is not hesitant to go.


18 posted on 03/26/2023 10:08:14 AM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith….)
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To: RFEngineer

The complicating problem is that the bits of infrastructure at risk to damage from such are expensive, not rapidly replaced and we don’t stock enough spares for them. So what does get broken stays broken for awhile. I’ve read for years, from knowledgeable folks like you, that quite a bit can be done to harden the grid and mitigate the risk. And that satellites offer enough warning time if the fixes are done properly. However, and I’d be delighted to be wrong and corrected on this, to the best of my knowledge our politicians and regulatory authorities continue to act stupid and neither mandate nor fund the needed changes. They’d far rather waste larger sums on greenie wind and solar nonsense. The worst of them think any natural event killing lots of humans desirable. And outside of the developed world there is currently little of even considering the needed fixes. Whomever manages to sidestep this will be rebooting a lot of the world that didn’t for some time. Praying that random CME aim leaves us enough time to over the stupidity of our elites.


19 posted on 03/26/2023 10:33:27 AM PDT by JohnBovenmyer (Biden/Harris events are called dodo ops)
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To: devane617

Yet another “we all must live in fear all the time” articles.


20 posted on 03/26/2023 10:50:49 AM PDT by joma89 (Buy weapons and ammo, folks, and have the will to use them.)
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