In last month’s issue of EARTH, we explored what is known about solar activity, the sun and its interaction with Earth. This month, we examine the possible effects of solar activity and the vulnerability of power grids and satellites, as well as what is being done to reduce that vulnerability.
Were a massive solar storm to strike Earth, the impacts could rival or exceed the worst natural disasters humans have ever faced.
Manhattanhenge is coming. On August 30, the sun’s rays will stream dramatically down the avenues of New York City’s central borough. For New Yorkers used to sunsets hidden behind brick and steel canyons, it will be an awesome reminder of the sun’s beauty and power.
When the sun puts its power on display, we often can’t see it all or predict it in advance. But the effects can be world-changing.
The last truly massive display of Sol’s power happened in 1859, when an invisible wave crashed into the Earth.
Electrons, swept up like so much detritus in the magnetic current, coursed along telegraph wires. When they met an obstacle, like the hand of a telegraph operator, they crashed through it — delivering a sharp shock.
Papers in telegraph offices caught fire. Operators found that even if telegraphs weren’t connected to power, the giddy subatomic stream could carry messages over vast distances. Lights danced in the sky.
It was the largest solar storm ever recorded. If it happened today, it would jeopardize global telecommunications, knock out orbiting satellites, and threaten to kill astronauts.
We’d have some warning, as instruments all over the world and in space now monitor the sun every second of the day. But even at the speed of light, a massive solar flare’s telltale flash of radiation would leave humanity between just a few minutes and — if we were very lucky — a day to prepare for the wave of charged particles surging toward us through space.
Amazingly, in 1859, before all that monitoring equipment was put in place, an astronomer spotted the flare before the storm reached Earth.
Carrington’s observation. The figures labeled A and B represent the flare. Harvard
At 11:18 a.m. on September 1, the English astronomer Richard Carrington stood in his private observatory recording sunspots on an image of the sun projected through his telescope onto a small screen.
“Two patches of intensely bright and white light broke out,” he wrote in his report, “Description of a Singular Appearance seen in the Sun,” for the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
“My first impression was that by some chance a ray of light had penetrated a hole in the screen attached to the object-glass, by which the general image is thrown into shade, for the brilliancy was fully equal to that of direct sunlight,” he wrote.
The next morning before sunrise, “skies all over planet Earth erupted in red, green, and purple auroras so brilliant that newspapers could be read as easily as in daylight,” according to NASA. “Indeed, stunning auroras pulsated even at near tropical latitudes over Cuba, the Bahamas, Jamaica, El Salvador, and Hawaii.”
Spacewalking astronauts might have only minutes after the first flash of light to find shelter. … Their spacecraft would probably have adequate shielding; the key would be getting inside in time.
In the (mostly) preelectric world of 1859, most of humanity experienced the storm as little more than a strange light show — if they were even awake to see it. And aside from a few smarting fingers, it doesn’t seem to have harmed anyone in the long term.
As our world has become more reliant on electronics in the last century and a half, we’ve had few glimpses of the potential dangers of solar storms to our new infrastructure. Since 1972, NASA has recorded three instances of solar storms significantly disrupting daily life.
The latest example was in 2005, when X-rays from a solar flare disrupted satellite-to-ground communication and the GPS system for about 10 minutes — threatening satellite-guided air, sea, and land travel.
But none of those storms come close to the scale of the 1859 monster, known as the Carrington Event.
If a Carrington Event happened today, the world likely would have to deal with the simultaneous loss of GPS, cellphone reception, and much of the power grid. The global aircraft fleet might have to coordinate an unprecedented mass grounding without satellite guidance. Unguarded electronic infrastructure could fail outright.
We’d all have to wait — at least in the short term — for tomorrow’s newspaper to come out to learn details of the aftermath.
“Humans in space would be in peril, too,” NASA wrote. “Spacewalking astronauts might have only minutes after the first flash of light to find shelter from energetic solar particles following close on the heels of those initial photons. Their spacecraft would probably have adequate shielding; the key would be getting inside in time.”
The best available estimates suggest a modern Carrington Event would cost humanity $1 trillion to $2 trillion in the first year and take another four to 10 years to achieve full recovery. A 2007 NASA estimate found that the damage to the satellite fleet would cost between $30 billion and $70 billion.
Fortunately, Carrington Event-level storms seem pretty rare, occurring perhaps once in 500 years. But we have no reliable way of predicting when the next one could happen. So this Manhattanhenge, enjoy the sunset — but remember its deadly power.
A coronal mass ejection (CME) is a massive burst of gas and magnetic field arising from the solar corona and being released into the solar wind.
Coronal mass ejections release huge quantities of matter and electromagnetic radiation into space above the sun’s surface, either near the corona (sometimes called a solar prominence), or farther into the planet system, or beyond (interplanetary CME). The ejected material is a plasma consisting primarily of electrons and protons. While solar flares are very fast, CMEs are relatively slow.
Near solar maxima, the Sun produces about three CMEs every day, whereas near solar minima, there is about one CME every five days.
When the ejection is directed towards Earth and reaches it as an interplanetary CME (ICME), the shock wave of the traveling mass of solar energetic particles causes a geomagnetic storm that may disrupt Earth’s magnetosphere, compressing it on the day side and extending the night-side magnetic tail. When the magnetosphere reconnects on the night side, it releases power on the order of terawatt scale, which is directed back toward Earth’s upper atmosphere. Dr. Michio Kaku Warning – Nibiru Planet X The Universe Solar Flame – Now Willing to Alert the Public About Planet X To Hit Earth Any Day Now – How it Will Affect This Planet
Some have seen this problem coming for a long time and changed their entire way of life by going off-grid. They have found alternative sources such as solar, wind and diesel to power their homes and machinery. A majority of us, who have not gone off-grid, are making a concerted effort to avoid dependence on this ailing infrastructure and preparing for life without it.
Our growing dependence on technology puts humans at a greater risk if power grids, planes and satellites stop working.
US President Biden was forced to issue a chilling warning to the nation in preparation for devastating space storms earlier this year.
He said: “Extreme space weather events — those that could significantly degrade critical infrastructure — could disable large portions of the electrical power grid, resulting in cascading failures that would affect key services such as water supply, health care, and transportation.
“Space weather has the potential to simultaneously affect and disrupt health and safety across entire continents.”
When a magnetic storm takes place, wires (and everything else) are enveloped with a magnetic field. If the magnetic field is strong enough (i.e. a Carrington Event) the electrons in those wires begin moving from the presence of a magnetic field . . . the exact same way our power plants create electricity. Power Plants have generators with giant coils of wire, which surround a powerful magnet which spins in the generator. The spinning magnet causes moving magnetic fields, and those fields free-up electrons and thus create electricity.
In a Carrington Event, the magnetic fields generated by solar wind penetrating our atmosphere would cause wires themselves to begin creating electric through the movement of the electrons in the wires. Voltages upward of 5,000 volts per meter of wire, could be generated by the wires themselves.
Now, this won’t take long for anyone to figure out . . . The voltage for home electricity in the USA is 120 Volts or 240 volts, sometimes 110/220. If the wires outside start generating their own electric and start pumping 5,000 volts into your house, what do you think that will do to anything that’s plugged-in?
Survival Food Prepping Ideas/ULTIMATE Top Skills 2022
Discover how to survive: Most complete survival tactics, tips, skills and ideas like how to make pemmican, snow shoes, knives, soap, beer, smoke houses, bullets, survival bread, water wheels, herbal poultices, Indian round houses, root cellars, primitive navigation, and much more at: The Lost Super Food
The Lost Super Food is a far-reaching book with chapters ranging from simple things like making tasty bark-bread-like people did when there was no food-to building a traditional backyard smokehouse… and many, many, many more!
Here’s just a glimpse of what you’ll find in The Lost Super Food:
From Ruff Simons, an old west history expert and former deputy, you’ll learn the techniques and methods used by the wise sheriffs from the frontiers to defend an entire village despite being outnumbered and outgunned by gangs of robbers and bandits, and how you can use their wisdom to defend your home against looters when you’ll be surrounded.
Books can be your best pre-collapse investment.
Carnivore’s Bible (is a wellknown meat processor providing custom meat processing services locally andacross the state of Montana and more. Whether your needs are for domestic meator wild game meat processing)
The Lost Book of Remedies PDF ( contains a series of medicinal andherbal recipes to make home made remedies from medicinal plants and herbs.Chromic diseases and maladies can be overcome by taking the remediesoutlined in this book. The writer claims that his grandfather was taughtherbalism and healing whilst in active service during world war twoand that he has treated many soldiers with his home made cures. )
Easy Cellar(Info about building and managing your root cellar, plus printable plans. The book on building and using root cellars – The Complete Root Cellar Book.)
The Lost Ways (Learn the long forgotten secrets that helped our forefathers survive famines,wars,economic crisis and anything else life threw at them)
LOST WAYS 2 ( Wordof the day: Prepare! And do it the old fashion way, like our fore-fathers did it and succeed longbefore us,because what lies ahead of us will require all the help we can get. Watch this video and learn the 3 skills that ensured our ancestors survival in hard times offamine and war.)