Scientists say tech-crippling solar blasts barely missed Earth in 2012

[unstoppablekem]

So I guess doomsday 2012 could've happened. Scary. And what this would do to all of us tech savvy people, wow...

Scientists: Crippling solar blasts just missed Earth in 2012 - Washington Times

 

[N_LaRUE]

I could have sworn this was mentioned at the time this happened. I'll have to see if I can dig up an article from then.

 

[QwarkDreams]

Bad examples but the things that come to my mind: In War of the Worlds the Aliens use an EMP (which has the same effect a solar flare would have) to disable all electronic devices. Or like in Ocean's Eleven.
I don't know how scientifig accurate the movie "2012" was but solar flares play a role in triggering the effects of world destruction in this one (more on a sub-atomic level and effecting the earth planet itself).

But it seems that this fear dates back even a little longer and was expected to happen last year.
Nasa warns solar flares from 'huge space storm' will cause devastation - Telegraph

 

[N_LaRUE]

Well I found the big one they went on about... Biggest Solar Storm in Years Bombarding Earth Now | Solar Flares & Space Weather | Space.com

We had a few that year. The article you posted doesn't say when this particular flare was supposed to hit Earth.

 

[unstoppablekem]

Well I found the big one they went on about... Biggest Solar Storm in Years Bombarding Earth Now | Solar Flares & Space Weather | Space.com

We had a few that year. The article you posted doesn't say when this particular flare was supposed to hit Earth.

Then why did they post articles about it now?


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[N_LaRUE]

Then why did they post articles about it now?

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Well, like I said. I'm unsure if that's the one they're going on about. Your article doesn't link to anything relevant. No idea where the information was coming from or why it made news now.

 

[unstoppablekem]

Well, like I said. I'm unsure if that's the one they're going on about. Your article doesn't link to anything relevant. No idea where the information was coming from or why it made news now.

I found it on many sites. I even found it on the bing news app.


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[N_LaRUE]

I found it on many sites. I even found it on the bing news app.

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Not entirely sure why it's suddenly news worthy but I did find the flare event. NASA - NASA STEREO Observes One of the Fastest CMEs On Record

Hold it, I think I finally found the true source to the news, which the regular media just spewed.

Scientists using UNH detector illuminate cause of sun's 'perfect storm'

Leave it to the crap 'regular' media to take something good and just use it to scare people.

 

[psiu_glen]

I would need to dig up the site but the concern for a country like ours is that the largest transformers of the grid are *not* protected. Why should they be? They are privately owned for profit. These are parts that are made to order overseas with lead times in the several months to years range. Nor do we carry spares for the same reasons. Protection is relatively simple AND cheap (on order of a couple hundred million) but that's our broken *** government for you.

Smaller transformers would be easier to repair, could be replaced with on hand spares, and we could get domestic production running quickly if needed, thus stabilizing things relatively quickly.

 

[unstoppablekem]

I would need to dig up the site but the concern for a country like ours is that the largest transformers of the grid are *not* protected. Why should they be? They are privately owned for profit. These are parts that are made to order overseas with lead times in the several months to years range. Nor do we carry spares for the same reasons. Protection is relatively simple AND cheap (on order of a couple hundred million) but that's our broken *** government for you.

Smaller transformers would be easier to repair, could be replaced with on hand spares, and we could get domestic production running quickly if needed, thus stabilizing things relatively quickly.

Wouldn't it take like 30 years to fully restore ourselves?


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[N_LaRUE]

I would need to dig up the site but the concern for a country like ours is that the largest transformers of the grid are *not* protected. Why should they be? They are privately owned for profit. These are parts that are made to order overseas with lead times in the several months to years range. Nor do we carry spares for the same reasons. Protection is relatively simple AND cheap (on order of a couple hundred million) but that's our broken *** government for you.

Smaller transformers would be easier to repair, could be replaced with on hand spares, and we could get domestic production running quickly if needed, thus stabilizing things relatively quickly.

I'll have to look into this more but I am at a loss as to how this solar flare would effect transformers. I must be missing something. I'm an electrical designer by the way so I'm actually curious.

Though I won't disagree with what you said, how does the government fit into your rant? You have privatized companies doing things on the cheap. Why blame the government? I personally think all important utilities like water, power and gas should be government owned but there's probably way too many who would disagree with me. Worse is that it's most likely that tax money is what set it up in the first place and we now pay to companies to 'supply' it to us at a cost. Brilliant.

I will never rely on a company to do things properly as they are profit driven. It's been proven too many times they don't give a damn about customers.

 

[psiu_glen]

I'm not sure -- been quite a while since I saw it -- there is a bill passed in the House iirc to require the bulk power providers to properly prepare for this. How would an EMP affect one, and/or what kind of protective measures could you have that might not be there as standard equipment?

Also, rant? that was nothin!

Public utilities, while possibly not needing to be publicly owned, should certainly be regulated to meet the public's needs.

Edit: these aren't the regular solar flares that make better than average northern lights. Look up the Carrington event. Been a couple close calls since apparently. But nowadays with our population density and reliance on JIT transportation and overall lack of survival knowledge (myself not exempted), it would be like a bad survivalist forum fantasy come true.

 

[psiu_glen]

3 more quick thoughts:

I think internet is about to the point where regulation as a utility should be given some strong consideration.

I didn't mean that we can replace the largest transformers with smaller ones, just that it would be more feasible to get the smaller ones up and running apparently. I'm assuming we are talking the ones at power stations connecting to the grid -- hopefully someone with some more knowledge could confirm that these are not, you know, off the shelf type things.

That was a question in my last post. Would an EMP (whether nuclear weapon, movie plot device, or solar powered) cause these kinds of problems?

 

[palandri]

We had that one real big solar flare in 1859 that blew up a lot of telegraph stations A Perfect Solar Superstorm: The 1859 Carrington Event — History in the Headlines

 

[unstoppablekem]

We had that one real big solar flare in 1859 that blew up a lot of telegraph stations A Perfect Solar Superstorm: The 1859 Carrington Event — History in the Headlines

Yes, we did. But it would affect us more now, as we are way more technologically advanced.


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[palandri]

Yes, we did. But it would affect us more now, as we are way more technologically advanced.


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Definitely!