Posted on 12/01/2016 10:12:44 PM PST by nickcarraway
THERE is a one in eight chance that the Earth will be hit by a huge solar storm by 2020 which could potentially leave the world without Internet, phone service and many more services that modern-day humans rely on.
Researchers have warned that there is roughly a 12 per cent chance that a solar storm could smash into Earth by the end of the decade.
The powerful event would likely be as huge as the Carrington Event, which occurred on 1859.
The solar storm which hit 150 years ago was so powerful that its southern auroras could be seen as far north as Queensland in Australia.
Today, in a modern world so dependent on technology, the implications would be far more severe.
Solar storms can wreak havoc on global technology as the radiation which pummels our planet heats up the outer atmosphere, causing it to expand.
This means that satellite signals will struggle to penetrate the swollen atmosphere, leading to a lack of Internet service, GPS navigation, satellite TV such as Sky and mobile phone signal.
Additionally, increased currents in the Earth’s magnetic field – or magnetosphere – could theoretically lead to a surge of electricity in power lines, which can blow out electrical transformers and power stations leading to a temporary loss of electricity in a region.
The prediction of a huge solar storm by 2020 was made by Pete Riley, senior scientist at Predictive Science in San Diego, California, who was surprised to see that the chance was so high.
He said: “Even if it’s off by a factor of two, that’s a much larger number than I thought.”
A solar storm the size of the Carrington Event would cost an estimated $2trillion (£1.6trillion) to the US economy in the first year it struck, with a 2008 report from the National Research Council stating that it could take up to 10 years to fully recover.
hate to lose FR, but in the main, we should be so lucky. /s
Well... keep me in the loop on this one.
nice tag line
Might get a 2-fer if Hillary is holding her blackberrry
only if it happens in the next 12 to 18 months or so, she’ll be gone after that.
Hey! Wait a second! Didn’t everyone say that Y2K would wipe out the Internet in 2000? I stopped using it because of what the experts told me, and now after 16 years you tell me it didn’t happen, I could have been on line all that time, but it doesn’t matter because this time it’s crashing for sure??!
So either the chances have gone up considerably lately or someone is fibbing. Most likely the latter. I could see the doctor saying there is a 12% chance of a solar storm in the next four year and then the press bumping that up to the absolute maximum - like saying you have a 50% chance of being in a car crash in the next 10 years and immediately skipping the most likely fender bender and proclaim that you will be killed in a explosively flaming crash at 120 mph within a couple years.
When anyone quotes a scientist without giving a link to the original paper I smell a rat.
Y2K would have been pretty bad if we had done nothing. With years of prep and work, the risk was mitigated away to minimal impact.
What are we doing to mitigate THIS risk???
Back to the slide rule, snail mail, talking to your neighbors, COD orders, (OMG) camping, No camping.
Not being an engineer, will my solar off grid I am building still work?
This will be awesome for my mobile phone charger that uses a solar panel.
Nope.
If the last big one was before the Civil War, more than 160 years ago, how could there possibly be a 12% chance in the next four years? We should have had a half dozen of them since. While it could happen, the odds are substantially less than 12%.
Plus, if it does happen, nobody will be able to tell me “I told you so!” ;)
Phooey!
I will make a fortune on my vacume tube cell phones
Building a wall.
Same global warming scientists?
I have one of those, too! I also have a hand crank charger. Cool!
So the price would be...a year of Obama fiat money?
Yeah,and Y2K was going to flatten half the worlds microprocessors too.
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