Oh noes, solar death rays! (Not PN) by Fremdfirma

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Oh noes, solar death rays! (Not PN)

POSTED BY: FREMDFIRMA
UPDATED: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 10:27
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Wednesday, March 17, 2010 6:41 AM

Found this article about solar storms downright fascinating.

The Great Storm: Solar Tempest of 1859 Revealed
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mystery_monday_031027.html

"In early September in 1859, telegraph wires suddenly shorted out in the United States and Europe, igniting widespread fires. Colorful aurora, normally visible only in polar regions, were seen as far south as Rome and Hawaii."

-F

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010 6:49 AM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

Like an earthwide EMP.

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010 7:04 AM

CHRISISALL

Oh my God; the planet
is
toast!

The laughing Chrisisall

"I only do it to to remind you that I'm right and that deep down, you know I'm right, you want me to be right, you need me to be right." - The Imperial Hero Strikes Back, 2010

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010 7:07 AM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

Not only would the communication and power lines be affected, so would generators, water pumps (how else do you think it comes out of the taps ?), microchips ... and literally everything else that you depend on - that depends on electricity.

'Underdeveloped' places would probably fare pretty well.

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010 7:10 AM

CHRISISALL

I smell a Rolland Emmerich flick commin' outta this....

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010 7:26 AM

KANEMAN

I read an article awhile back(can't seem to find it). It was about how the earth's magnetic poles shift every now and again. That this takes time and is gradual. What was interesting is the articule claimed that when this happens our magnetic shield "wobbles" in on itself and if there was a massive solar storm at that time we would lose everything electric, not some systems. Everything. Then it went into how dependent we are on electric systems. It would be bad. Especially getting food.

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010 8:39 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

Hell. Go hiking in Death Valley in August without proper precautions and you'll find solar death rays are real. Several people a year do so.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010 8:48 AM

BYTEMITE

The good news is, I'm pretty sure even with the wobbling the Earth's magnetic field doesn't ever COMPLETELY shut down. It's that whole dynamo inducer thing it operates on, you might not be able to tell which way is north during the transition because magnetic north would be moving southward, but it wouldn't go away. So I don't think we're ever really going to get irradiated to death unless we do it to ourselves.

But occasionally, a strong ion storm from a solar flare can overwhelm the capacity of the Van Allen Belt, letting some of it through. And the Van Allen belt isn't a consistent thickness, so different areas under it offer different amounts of protection.

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010 9:06 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Oh my God; the planet
is
toast!

"I supported Bush in 2000 and 2004 and intellegence [sic] had very little to do with that decision." - Hero, Real World Event Discussions

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010 9:07 AM

KWICKO

Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:
Hell. Go hiking in Death Valley in August without proper precautions and you'll find solar death rays are real. Several people a year do so.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

Maybe you'd like to demonstrate!

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010 9:08 AM

CHRISISALL

You caught that oblique ref...

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010 9:28 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

...and here I thought the oblique reference was to "Volcano":

My second favorite after "Dante's Peak"!

"I'm just right. Kinda like the sun rising in the east and the world being round...its not a need its just the way it is." The Delusional "Hero", 3/1/10

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010 10:00 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

SOLAR STORMS

{I}t wasn’t until the HydroQuebec Power Grid blackout in Quebec, Canada, in March of 1989 that the world truly realized the extent to which solar storms can impact the economy. The solar storm induced a nine-hour blackout which affected 6 million customers ...Additionally, Public Service Electric and Gas in New Jersey suffered serious damage to two of its transformers. It cost PSE&G eight million to replace the transformers and the cost of replacement energy during the time the transformers were taken out of service was approximately $16.8 million, so the net cost for PSE&G was over $24 million. Together, this single space weather storm cost Hydro Quebec and PSE&G more than $30 million.

October-November 2003 Solar Storm
The solar storms that impacted the Earth between Oct. 19 to Nov. 7, 2003, further justify the benefits of NOAA space weather activities and remind the nation that space weather can be hazardous to Earth and space systems at any time during the 11-year solar cycle. This storm came as quite a surprise, since it occurred three-and-a-half years after solar minimum, when things are relatively quiet on the sun compared to solar maximum.

"It's like seeing a hurricane in November rather than August, when you'd typically expect it," commented Larry Combs, one of the NOAA Space Environment Center forecasters. “What also made these storms unusual is that there were two distinct, very intense geomagnetic storms, which both arrived in just 19 hours from the sun to the Earth. This ranks them as some of the fastest traveling solar storms on record and both produced the strongest activity this solar cycle — reaching extreme or G5 on the NOAA space weather scales." Because the NOAA Space Environment Center released advanced warnings about an unusually large solar storm, electrical utilities, airlines and spacecraft managers were able to take preventive action to minimize disruption of service — and the economy — due to the storm.

www.magazine.noaa.gov/stories/mag131.htm

Transformers, dynamos, windings on electric motors, long power lines (act as antennna) ... all of these are custom made. It would take YEARS to replace them all. On the upside, solar storms only hit one side of the planet at a time... generally, less than that. So their effect would be regional, not global. Also, the satellite warning helps.

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010 10:24 AM

KWICKO

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
You caught that oblique ref...

The laughing Chrisisall

"I only do it to to remind you that I'm right and that deep down, you know I'm right, you want me to be right, you need me to be right." - The Imperial Hero Strikes Back, 2010

But only because Jim Rome plays it so damned often! I *HATE* that stupid movie, and that clip alone justifies that hate! :)

"I supported Bush in 2000 and 2004 and intellegence [sic] had very little to do with that decision." - Hero, Real World Event Discussions

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010 10:27 AM

KWICKO

Quote:
On the upside, solar storms only hit one side of the planet at a time... generally, less than that. So their effect would be regional, not global. Also, the satellite warning helps.

Whew - for a minute there I thought things were bad! :)

So you're saying there's a 50-50 chance, eh?

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