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Massive solar flare narrowly misses Earth, EMP disaster barely avoided
Washington Examiner ^ | 7/31/13 | PAUL BEDARD

Posted on 07/31/2013 12:02:01 PM PDT by Kartographer

Two EMP experts told Secrets that the EMP flashed through earth's typical orbit around the sun about two weeks before the planet got there.

"The world escaped an EMP catastrophe," said Henry Cooper, who lead strategic arms negotiations with the Soviet Union under President Reagan, and who now heads High Frontier, a group pushing for missile defense.

"There had been a near-miss about two weeks ago, a Carrington-class coronal mass ejection crossed the orbit of the Earth and basically just missed us," said Peter Vincent Pry, who served on the Congressional EMP Threat Commission from 2001-2008. He was referring to the 1859 EMP named after astronomer Richard Carrington that melted telegraph lines in Europe and North America.

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


TOPICS: Astronomy
KEYWORDS: carrington; carringtonevent; cme; coronalmassejection; emp; maunderminimum; peterpry; petervincentpry; prepparedness; preppers; pry; solarflares; sun
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To: Marcella
Personally if they don't have the grid up in a year then it's pretty much 'Mad Max' for most of the country. If you think of the chaos that results with the power being out for weeks due to a Hurricane then multiply that buy the whole country. It will turn 'dog-eat-dog' pretty fast. Remember the near riots from the gasoline lines during Sandy? Well the nearest gas station working could end up being hundreds of miles not tens. But the lack of clean water and working sewers will kill the most in MHO.

In fact most any SHTF over such a wide area is pretty much a bend over situation. My goal is to survive two growing seasons. Anything beyond that would take more resources and skills than I have. I hope that I don't discourage people from prepping, and I know my answer disappoints those who believe that I see myself as Mel Gibson, but to quote another movie icon: "A man has to know his limitations."
121 posted on 07/31/2013 4:26:59 PM PDT by Kartographer ("We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.")
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To: Kartographer

If some kind of organization isn’t in place within two years we’ll be back to a feudal system.


122 posted on 07/31/2013 4:41:12 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: cripplecreek
I wonder how many miles that translates into.

Approximately 22.4 million miles.

Average earth distance to the Sun is 93 million miles. So the circumference of the Earth's orbit is 93,000,000 * 2 * pi = 585.3 million miles. Divide by 365.25 and Earth travels approximately 1.6 million miles per day. So 14 days of that gives the approximation.

A good fifth grade math/science question.

123 posted on 07/31/2013 4:42:05 PM PDT by AustinBill (consequence is what makes our choices real)
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To: Old Sarge

I think you copied that article of mine when I first put it on. If you don’t have it, I can direct you by link where it is on Survival Podcast to copy it from there. It just flips me out when people don’t have the right information.

I couldn’t believe those two men on that program didn’t know better - couldn’t believe they thought One Second After was the gospel truth. At the time I read that, I thought that, too, then I educated myself.


124 posted on 07/31/2013 5:17:51 PM PDT by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
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To: Marcella
Oh, I'm right there with you about blind believers.

We have locals here who are total worshippers of James Wesley COMMA Rawles...

125 posted on 07/31/2013 5:29:53 PM PDT by Old Sarge (My "KMA List" is growing daily...)
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To: RFEngineer
My description of what gets fried when or not, is not from me. It is from scientists in that field reporting together how it really is.

The commission centered on attack EMPs, so that information comes from that report.

Yes, cars will run, however that is the least of the problems since gasoline and every commodity people need to live will be in short supply first and then there will be none. That's another reason why I prep. That would be like the hurricane coming through my town like it has before and taken out power and all the food and gas had been bought up. That is the way it would be for a very long time. I am reminded of that when each hurricane comes through.

The first thing I notice when power goes off in the whole town, is the total silence. Not one background noise. Sure, some say they would welcome that, but it is discomforting when that quiet goes on day after day unless you have a way to create “comfort” noise. I have a battery portable digital TV so I can find out what is happening around me. If you haven't experienced damage over a hundred miles around you - you can't find out squat if you don't have a way to find out if your area is really damaged or if the utilities are okay to use, etc.. Those involved can't see what has happened if they have no working TV.

After Ike went through, due to the portable battery TV, I could see the terrible damage done to Galveston, to Texas City, to League City, to Houston, and to my area. Seeing what is out there allows one to adjust to it faster.

126 posted on 07/31/2013 5:38:20 PM PDT by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
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To: Kartographer

“My goal is to survive two growing seasons.”

I would hope that is enough time for some type of recovery. I think of it in terms of one day and the next day and the next, etc.


127 posted on 07/31/2013 5:42:03 PM PDT by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
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To: Old Sarge

“We have locals here who are total worshippers of James Wesley COMMA Rawles...”

I never did buy any of his books. I don’t plan to have an army with machine guns.


128 posted on 07/31/2013 5:43:51 PM PDT by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
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To: Kartographer

Can’t we have a tax that would prevent this kind of thing from happening?


129 posted on 07/31/2013 6:06:07 PM PDT by Rebelbase (Tagline: (optional, printed after your name on post))
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To: Marcella

“It is from scientists in that field reporting together how it really is.”

Who are you talking to? I probably know them. I am quite sure they are not telling you what you think they are telling you.

There are all sorts of transients that can occur in power distribution that can burn things out. It’s possible that a solar flare could induce this sort of secondary failure, but no energy from a solar flare can propagate across a transformer - it’s essentially DC - it doesn’t pass through.


130 posted on 07/31/2013 6:06:45 PM PDT by RFEngineer
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To: InvisibleChurch

I thought it was when Crystal and Alexis had a cat fight in the swimming pool.


131 posted on 07/31/2013 6:14:37 PM PDT by Rebelbase (Tagline: (optional, printed after your name on post))
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To: Kartographer

God laughs at our modern high tech “security”.

Maybe he’ll knock us down a notch.


132 posted on 07/31/2013 6:18:59 PM PDT by Rebelbase (Tagline: (optional, printed after your name on post))
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To: Marcella

What is the typical duration of a large flare?


133 posted on 07/31/2013 6:27:34 PM PDT by ION is here
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To: ION is here

“What is the typical duration of a large flare?”

I have no idea.


134 posted on 07/31/2013 6:39:27 PM PDT by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
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To: driftdiver

I thought with King Bama we are already there.


135 posted on 07/31/2013 6:48:08 PM PDT by Kartographer ("We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.")
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To: Interesting Times; GreyFriar; SeraphimApprentice

Solar flare near miss.


136 posted on 07/31/2013 7:29:42 PM PDT by zot
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To: zeugma

We put a man on the moon. We can fix our grid.


137 posted on 07/31/2013 8:34:54 PM PDT by LiberConservative (I took the red pill)
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To: Kartographer
When you consider the distance what’s a few hundred miles one way or another?

True, I was surprised that two people independently came as close as we did. That's what I meant by "close enough for government work". I'll also stipulate that my calculation included a bunch of simplifying assumptions like 93*10^6 is a constant distance from earth to sun, that makes our orbit a circle which is nor true but makes the circumference calculation much simpler. Also assumed that the year is 365¼ days of 24 hours each which again is a simplification and fairly close.

What came as no surprise was the hyperventilation about a"NEAR MISS" which turned out to be thousands of earth diameters off target. To me a near miss would have taken out some communication satellites at 22,000 miles out.

What may prove to be a major problem would be the sun going into a phase where cronal mass ejections have replaced sun spots as normal events. If that proves to be true it's only a matter of time playing Russian roulette before we take a direct hit from such with an EMP to move us back several hundred years in the blink of an eye.

Regards,
GtG

PS I'm getting too old to worry much about things like this...

138 posted on 07/31/2013 9:02:39 PM PDT by Gandalf_The_Gray (I live in my own little world, I like it 'cuz they know me here.)
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To: cripplecreek
The modern industrial world has been built around advanced computer controls. That also includes pretty much all the fuel and chemicals manufacturing too. Plants would be borught down with very long term down time. Considering the dominoing effect of so many things that need each other to function, 3rd world status would hastily come in matter of weeks.

Not having decent contingency plans for an EMP (either Carrington or nuclear) is absolutely foolish.

139 posted on 08/01/2013 3:07:08 AM PDT by catfish1957 (Face it!!!! The government in DC is full of treasonous bastards)
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To: RFEngineer
Not to minimize a solar flares impact, but, a solar flare can impact the power grid only

Have you read about the Carrington event? The EM energy was so intense that it caused fires from telegraph transmission lines to telegraph offices. Sure weren't any elecric power grids back in 1859. Apply this to any form of wiring, and realize what the impact will be to general electronics, their hardware, software, and associated controls. If you are an engineer, (as I), then you will realize how this will impact any form of manufacturing that employs computer controls.

140 posted on 08/01/2013 3:15:31 AM PDT by catfish1957 (Face it!!!! The government in DC is full of treasonous bastards)
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