Posted on 02/20/2011 3:24:50 PM PST by BenLurkin
The sun is waking up from a long quiet spell. Last week it sent out the strongest flare for four years and scientists are warning that earth should prepare for an intense electromagnetic storm that, in the worst case, could be a global Katrina costing the world economy $2,000bn.
Senior officials responsible for policy on solar storms also known as space weather in the US, UK and Sweden urged more preparedness at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington.
Please respect FT.com's ts&cs and copyright policy which allow you to: share links; copy content for personal use; & redistribute limited extracts. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights or use this link to reference the article - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/67444b2c-3d13-11e0-bbff-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1EXnmMIXP
Predict and prepare should be the watchwords, agreed Jane Lubchenco, head of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. So much more of our technology is vulnerable than it was 10 years ago.
A solar storm starts with an eruption of super-hot gas travelling out from the sun at speeds of up to 5m miles an hour. Electrically charged particles hit earths atmosphere 20 to 30 hours later, causing electromagnetic havoc.
Last weeks solar storm may have been the biggest since 2007, but it was relatively small in historical terms.
It caused some radio communications problems and minor disruption of civil aviation as airlines routed flights away from the polar regions, said Dr Lubchenco.
A more extreme storm can shut down communications satellites for many hours or even cause permanent damage to their components. On the ground, the intense magnetic fluctuations can induce surges in power lines, leading to grid failures such as the one that blacked out the whole of Quebec in 1989.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
![]() |
||
· join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe · | ||
Instant Gamma’s Gonna Get You
Well we all shine on,
Like the moon and the stars and the sun,
Yeah we all shine on,
On and on and on on and on.
In terms of infrastructure you would be fine but some businesses have systems that need 12 hours or more to properly shut down.
Another $2 Tril? Yeah, well the sun is just going to have to wait until we can fit in a bond offering to cover that.
He}} if I know, but you missed the “m” for MILLION. Put that MILLION back in the equation and the answer will make more sense.
If you have half an hour and your system will slag out it makes sense to ignore the 12 hour proper shut down and just flip the switch now!
“I’m ready. Been ready for years. Stupid to not know how to do basic stuff.”
Me too, since the early 90’s. Let’s get it over with.
They also had a “battle short” switch that overrode the timer.
The warm-up could be skipped in an emergency.
Computer systems are similar.
It may take time to get them back up, but shut-down isn't fatal.
What was that we were discussing?
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Is this another result of and therefore proof of Global Warming? I expect Al Gore will say so.
The article makes mention of 20 - 30 hours from the event to impacting affairs here. They’re monitored fairly closely as I understand. Is there some hole in the assumption that it’ll be known with enough advance warning to at least mitigate the effects of power surge?
Here comes the Sun, do do do do, here comes the Sun, and I say...
Will this then take care of the problem of over population woes in the earlier post? 8 billion with no food?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.