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MYTH: Solar flares occur at random. REALITY: Solar flares follow an 11-year cycle. Pictured: Full-disk images of the sun's lower corona during solar cycle 23, as it progressed from solar minimum to maximum conditions and back to minimum (upper right ...
Earth Needs Better Preparation For Massive Solar Storm, Scientist Says
The Huffington Post
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By Matt Ferner
Posted: 12/11/2013 3:13 pm EST
“My space weather colleagues believe that until we have an event that slams Earth and causes complete mayhem, policy makers are not going to pay attention,” Baker, director of the university's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, said in a written statement. “The message we are trying to convey is that we made direct measurements of the 2012 event and saw the full consequences without going through a direct hit on our planet.”
The high-energy particles liberated by a major flare could disrupt transportation, communication, and financial systems in addition to limiting the availability of food, medications, and drinking water, according to a 2008 National Resource Council report, which Baker co-authored.
Baker isn't alone in his concern over the risk posed by solar storms. A 2013 report from the Royal Academy of Engineering in London called for the creation of a space weather board to help plan for a solar superstorm. It also called for a system to warn of dangerous space weather radiation.
What exactly is Baker proposing? That the 2012 event be adopted as "the best estimate of the worst case space weather scenario" and be used to create models to predict the effects such a storm would have on power grids and other vulnerable systems.
The 2012 solar storm largely missed Earth but could have been highly disruptive if radiation from it had given the planet a direct hit, Baker said. The area of the sun that produced the solar explosion was facing away from us, but just a week earlier that same area was pointed right at Earth, he said.
The 2012 event was also alarming to Baker for the speed at which the radiation it produced traveled through space. Generally, coronal mass ejections take two to three days to reach Earth, but the 2012 ejection reached Earth in 18 hours.
“The speed of this event was as fast or faster than anything that has been seen in the modern space age,” Baker said in the statement. "The event not only had the most powerful CME ever recorded, but it would have triggered one of the strongest geomagnetic storms and the highest density of particle fluctuation ever seen in a typical solar cycle, which lasts roughly 11 years."
The largest solar storm on record is believed to be the so-called "Carrington event" in 1859 -- an event that reportedly set telegraph machines ablaze and caused auroras borealis so bright that people could read well into the night. Yet there's speculation that the 2012 CME was likely even more powerful.
“The Carrington storm and the 2012 event show that extreme space weather events can happen even during a modest solar cycle like the one presently underway,” Baker said. “Rather than wait and pick up the pieces, we ought to take lessons from these events to prepare ourselves for inevitable future solar storms.”
end quote from:
Earth Needs Better Preparation For Massive Solar Storm, Scientist Says
Yes. A Solar Storm like the "Carrington Event" in 1859 is not "If but When?"
So, when it happens possibly everything or almost everything electrical or that has magnetic memory like most laptops and other computers on earth will be fried. I'm not saying it will take us back to the stone age but for some countries it could be pretty close to the stone age for a few months at the very least. So, whatever countries facing the sun when a really big solar storm targets earth won't have any magnetic memories left on likely any computers. Also, satellites will be permanently or temporarily gone depending upon whether there was enough time to turn them off before the event and whether it is possible to start them up again. In other words GPS for ships, planes, people, cars etc. won't be there some places when a big enough solar flare occurs.
Solar storm of 1859 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859
The solar storm of 1859, also known as the 1859 Solar Superstorm, or the Carrington Event, was a powerful geomagnetic solar storm in 1859 during solar cycle ...
Carrington Super Flare - Similar events - See also - References
If the the 2012 event
hadn't largely missed earth much of the electrical infrastructure (including computers, GPS Satellites, and all or most magnetic memory the kind stored in laptops to supercomputers would be gone. In such an event all information not stored in non-magnetic storage likely would be permanently gone wherever the storm hit worldwide.
Here is a perfectly believable scenario. Imagine it is 50 or 100 years from now. People mostly don't drive vehicles on air, land or sea anymore. So, when the solar flare hits millions of people traveling in cars (mostly self driving cars would die) wherever the solar flare hit, people in self driving planes would first run into each other or just crash without any power available to control surfaces (which are mostly all electric in passenger planes now or hydraulic which usually also needs electric pumps to move control surfaces. So, imagine a solar flare hits of the magnitude of 1859. Millions of people in self driving cars, self flying planes, and self driving boats and planes suddenly or over 1/2 and hour are all dead or maimed over whatever section of the earth the solar flare hit. Then, nothing electrical works in the countries hit by the gigantic solar flare, no cars, computers, pacemakers, or any other electrical device works. So, anyone whose health or well being required those devices dies. Any heaters or air conditioners stop working, etc. etc. etc. This is very serious and could kill or maim literally millions of people within the first 1/2 hour or within the next month or two as all refrigeration failed as well as all transportation that uses electricity. (Which basically leaves horses, bicycles and feet).
One possible defense against this happening would be electrical devices stored deep enough underground not to be affected by a big solar flare. But, this mostly wouldn't be practical accept for the biggest countries governments, the military of different countries and largest companies to keep going through any such calamity by keeping building electrical components and generating electricity and keeping governments still operating underground. So, I could see all the largest countries and companies building such underground bunkers deep enough to withstand an 1859 type of event. However, 90% of the people in those countries would basically be back to the stone age or at least the 1850s to the 1890s for awhile. (Maybe a few months or more).
If the the 2012 event
hadn't largely missed earth much of the electrical infrastructure (including computers, GPS Satellites, and all or most magnetic memory the kind stored in laptops to supercomputers would be gone. In such an event all information not stored in non-magnetic storage likely would be permanently gone wherever the storm hit worldwide.
Here is a perfectly believable scenario. Imagine it is 50 or 100 years from now. People mostly don't drive vehicles on air, land or sea anymore. So, when the solar flare hits millions of people traveling in cars (mostly self driving cars would die) wherever the solar flare hit, people in self driving planes would first run into each other or just crash without any power available to control surfaces (which are mostly all electric in passenger planes now or hydraulic which usually also needs electric pumps to move control surfaces. So, imagine a solar flare hits of the magnitude of 1859. Millions of people in self driving cars, self flying planes, and self driving boats and planes suddenly or over 1/2 and hour are all dead or maimed over whatever section of the earth the solar flare hit. Then, nothing electrical works in the countries hit by the gigantic solar flare, no cars, computers, pacemakers, or any other electrical device works. So, anyone whose health or well being required those devices dies. Any heaters or air conditioners stop working, etc. etc. etc. This is very serious and could kill or maim literally millions of people within the first 1/2 hour or within the next month or two as all refrigeration failed as well as all transportation that uses electricity. (Which basically leaves horses, bicycles and feet).
One possible defense against this happening would be electrical devices stored deep enough underground not to be affected by a big solar flare. But, this mostly wouldn't be practical accept for the biggest countries governments, the military of different countries and largest companies to keep going through any such calamity by keeping building electrical components and generating electricity and keeping governments still operating underground. So, I could see all the largest countries and companies building such underground bunkers deep enough to withstand an 1859 type of event. However, 90% of the people in those countries would basically be back to the stone age or at least the 1850s to the 1890s for awhile. (Maybe a few months or more).
