Errr we just had a close shave.....
Discussion
If the recent news was anything to go by we had a huge lucky escape in 2012.
It would have been terrible indeed and something like this would probably resulted in more deaths than all the wars put together. Working in a data centre and critical comms environment I think it would have been pretty much life over as we know it.
I know how had it is to source a basic power transformer, so to try and replace thousands. To repair a grid that was burned out and to try and recover from this sort of event would have been a nightmare of epic proportions
http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/494438/End-of...
It would have been terrible indeed and something like this would probably resulted in more deaths than all the wars put together. Working in a data centre and critical comms environment I think it would have been pretty much life over as we know it.
I know how had it is to source a basic power transformer, so to try and replace thousands. To repair a grid that was burned out and to try and recover from this sort of event would have been a nightmare of epic proportions
http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/494438/End-of...
ks" who warned us of 3 months of the worst snow for 60 years for Winter 2013, and also now telling us that a mega heatwave will hit us in August.
Pah, they're late. This will be in response to the paper that was published a few days ago, reviewing a the large CME a couple of years back which fortunately missed us.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/26/two_years_...
I suspect we are due one sometime in the next couple of centuries, and it probably will make a bit of a mess.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/26/two_years_...
I suspect we are due one sometime in the next couple of centuries, and it probably will make a bit of a mess.
Reg said:
These days we are much more dependent on electronics that would be harmed by CMEs of this type. According to a study by the National Academy of Sciences, the total economic impact could exceed $2 trillion if a similar solar storm hit us today and the ensuing chaos would cost millions of lives as electrical grids failed.
Love the headline "Killer solar superstorm could destroy Earth "
Then the article goes on to say
"Scientists warn communication systems will be crippled, vital services such as transport, sanitation and medicine will close, and loss of power will plunge the planet into darkness."
So.........not destroy Earth then. It may have a detrimental effect on human technology - but it sounds like 'earth' would be just fine.
It's the same doom and gloom language used in the climate debate - "we are destroying the planet"...........no we arent - we may be making it a little less habitable for us and a few other species - but i'm sure the planet will be fine and will carry on quite happily once we are dead and buried.
If earth can survive the late heavy bombardment and being hit by an object large enough to create the moon from the debris - i'm sure a few Aston martin V8s and the odd solar storm are nothing to worry about (from the earth's perspective).
Then the article goes on to say
"Scientists warn communication systems will be crippled, vital services such as transport, sanitation and medicine will close, and loss of power will plunge the planet into darkness."
So.........not destroy Earth then. It may have a detrimental effect on human technology - but it sounds like 'earth' would be just fine.
It's the same doom and gloom language used in the climate debate - "we are destroying the planet"...........no we arent - we may be making it a little less habitable for us and a few other species - but i'm sure the planet will be fine and will carry on quite happily once we are dead and buried.
If earth can survive the late heavy bombardment and being hit by an object large enough to create the moon from the debris - i'm sure a few Aston martin V8s and the odd solar storm are nothing to worry about (from the earth's perspective).
http://www.nhregister.com/science/20140727/nasa-ea...
Okay then this average student dent picked up else where - NASA no less......
Okay then this average student dent picked up else where - NASA no less......
Aren't we in the middle of a remarkably unremarkable solar maximum right now?
10 year - ish cycle between minimum and maximum activity on the sun god?
And the slew of mass coronal ejections never really got going?
Not going to lose much sleep whilst we've still got a massive blob of molten iron doing it's business at the planet core.
Seems to have worked ok for the last few million years.
10 year - ish cycle between minimum and maximum activity on the sun god?
And the slew of mass coronal ejections never really got going?
Not going to lose much sleep whilst we've still got a massive blob of molten iron doing it's business at the planet core.
Seems to have worked ok for the last few million years.
Rather than bash the author perhaps do your own research. CME's are a very real hazard and in theory can cause major infrastructure damage.
We had a biggie in 1989 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1989_geomagneti...
And the biggest to date - the Carrington Event - would have made a real mess of modern electrical systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859
"Telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed, in some cases giving telegraph operators electric shocks.[7] Telegraph pylons threw sparks.[8] Some telegraph systems continued to send and receive messages despite having been disconnected from their power supplies.[9]"
We had a biggie in 1989 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1989_geomagneti...
And the biggest to date - the Carrington Event - would have made a real mess of modern electrical systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859
"Telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed, in some cases giving telegraph operators electric shocks.[7] Telegraph pylons threw sparks.[8] Some telegraph systems continued to send and receive messages despite having been disconnected from their power supplies.[9]"
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