Massive solar flare narrowly misses Earth, EMP disaster barely avoided

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.

I really appreciate your persistence on this thread. Stunning unwillingness to learn displayed by others.

What an extra-atmospheric nuclear burst does to excite the atmosphere is so much different than what “the solar wind” does.

Never give in ;-)

“What an extra-atmospheric nuclear burst does to excite the atmosphere is so much different than what “the solar wind” does.”

Thank you......it’s important that people be armed with facts as best as we can . This topic generates lots of misinformation. Some of it deliberate by folks that wish to take advantage of others, some of it because some folks don’t know any better.

The 1859 EMP event melted telegraph lines in Europe and North America.

Where'd you find that, Mr. Bedard? Detailed accounts abound, but there is no evidence (I can find) that the lines melted.

Many telegraph lines across North America were rendered inoperable on the night of August 28 as the first of two successive solar storms struck. E.W. Culgan, a telegraph manager in Pittsburgh, reported that the resulting currents flowing through the wires were so powerful that platinum contacts were in danger of melting and “streams of fire” were pouring forth from the circuits. In Washington, D.C., telegraph operator Frederick W. Royce was severely shocked as his forehead grazed a ground wire. According to a witness, an arc of fire jumped from Royce’s head to the telegraphic equipment. Some telegraph stations that used chemicals to mark sheets reported that powerful surges caused telegraph paper to combust.
On the morning of September 2, the magnetic mayhem resulting from the second storm created even more chaos for telegraph operators. When American Telegraph Company employees arrived at their Boston office at 8 a.m., they discovered it was impossible to transmit or receive dispatches. The atmosphere was so charged, however, that operators made an incredible discovery: They could unplug their batteries and still transmit messages to Portland, Maine, at 30- to 90-second intervals using only the auroral current. Messages still couldn’t be sent as seamlessly as under normal conditions, but it was a useful workaround. By 10 a.m. the magnetic disturbance abated enough that stations reconnected their batteries, but transmissions were still affected for the rest of the morning.

When the oil rigs die, the field oil pumps die, the oil line pumps die, the refineries die, the trains hauling tank cars die, the local tanker trucks die, and the pumps at the local gas station die, you may have some difficulty finding fuel for your generators. A big enough EMP and we are in for some serious trouble. No water, no sewage treatment, no food production, no shipping or logistics, no way to run the factories to produce the replacement electrical transformers. We would be in a world of hurt.

“I wonder if NASA invented thunderstorms to cover up the sound of space battles?”

I did some work at Homestead Air Force Base. Although it had been destroyed by the hurricane a year or two earlier. The Air Force guy was briefing us in the early morning of hazards at the site, and at the end said “You need to be in your vehicles at 1630 hours, as a thunderstorm will be rolling through at 1703.”

I made a quip of “You sure it won’t be 1700!?”

He glared at me and said “1703”

Nine hours late, the storm hit at 1703! I suppose with just ocean around they can get pretty accurate - but I always figured they have MUCH better equipment to track stuff than the news channels do. Spooky.

Of course - now you got me thinking.....!

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