Watch out!

[White Crane Feather]

We are at solar maximum, and a solar super flare has the possibility to change civilization as we know it. It's about a 5% chance every 11 years but is completely random. The last one was in 1869. "The carrington event". I pay attention to the sun and there is an impressive set of sunspots developing. I'd say if it were going to happen this maximum we are closest this week than we have ever been in the last 11 years. Keep your eyes open. If an x90 or greater event occurs we will experience the equivalent of a global emp. Sounds like fun

Download the space weather app, and you will know right away if you need to start hordiing groceries.

Take care.

Edited October 30, 2013 by White Crane Feather

[jesspy]

HA!

[Frank Merton]

This particular solar maximum seems fairly innocuous, but these things can come out of the blue. One more reason to have at least a minimum of CD preparation at all times.

[Doug1029]

While we are at the peak of a solar cycle, it is the smallest peak in well over a century. And even if the sun produces a large flair, it has to be aimed exactly at us to make any difference. There was one a few months ago that could have done serious damage, but it missed us.

The odds of another Carrington event hitting us are small, but it will be devastating if one hits us. Eventually, no matter how small the odds, we will get hit. Some preparation is in order, if we can only get Congress to stop playing at politics long enough to fund a backup plan.

Doug

[WhispersInTheAttic]

I'm not sure what to think about this: I keep hearing how certain things are planning on happening. I've never got myself too hung on things I read about, I did it the past and ended up worrying myself sick. If something was to happen, it'll most likely happen without us knowing about it.

[Professor T]

I've been watching this closely for a few years..

Ironically, sunspot AR1890 has just sent an X3 flare our way..

[White Crane Feather]

I've been watching this closely for a few years..

Ironically, sunspot AR1890 has just sent an X3 flare our way..

There is a pretty nasty set up even now coming around the solar horizon. If you are interested in the subject, look up the statistics in ice core samples. Look up what happened in 756 as well. Then pay attention to our reliance on tiny electronics, then recognize geologically speaking our way of life is built on a very vulnerable and exponentially growing reliance on vulnerable electronics. Unfortunately this run at modern technology will be lost at some point. Maybe the next go around will be more successful.

Edited November 6, 2013 by White Crane Feather

[Frank Merton]

I can picture the utility company boardroom where some technician looking at plans argues for making them secure against a serious solar flare, and being told the company doesn't spend good money on things that happen only once ever several hundred years. This short-sightedness repeated over and over all over the world is setting us up for a huge catastrophe when millions will literally starve to death.

[Professor T]

A repeat of the carrington event would make the fukishima disaster look like a drop of rain in a thunderstorm.. The worse thing about such a widespread loss of modern technology would be that no-one will know what is really happening around the world for months if not years, and by that time there'd be few left away..

Just think about it.. If a tsunami has the power to cripple the backup generators at a single nuclear facility, what would a World Wide EMP blast powerful enough to fry every circuit, and catch power poles on fire do to all of them at once..

Anyhow.. I'm optimistic about the future, regardless..

[White Crane Feather]

A repeat of the carrington event would make the fukishima disaster look like a drop of rain in a thunderstorm.. The worse thing about such a widespread loss of modern technology would be that no-one will know what is really happening around the world for months if not years, and by that time there'd be few left away..

Just think about it.. If a tsunami has the power to cripple the backup generators at a single nuclear facility, what would a World Wide EMP blast powerful enough to fry every circuit, and catch power poles on fire do to all of them at once..

Anyhow.. I'm optimistic about the future, regardless..

Yes I believe in the series life after people, all the nuclear power plants melted down inside of two weeks. It created what they called a death fog. It was really strange because I saw the same episode again and that segment had been removed.

Edited November 6, 2013 by White Crane Feather

[White Crane Feather]

Something else to think about. The carington even was estimated to be about an x85. But x100 or x200 are certainly possible. The magnetic field quivering from an x200 would fry every single circuit on earth hands down.

[Moon Gazer]

I have no idea what you are all taking about lol. Can someone point me in the direction of a website with some basic info for dummies please?

[White Crane Feather]

Snip

Edited November 6, 2013 by White Crane Feather

[White Crane Feather]

Google "carrington event" "solar flares" "solar emp" "solar tsunami"

A coronal mass ejection (CME) is plasma blown off the sun from a large solar flare. The earth has a magnetic field that protects us from this. When a CME hits the magnetic field it makes the field quiver. This creates an electromagnetic pulse. (Emp) as well as ground currents. Emps can also be created by detonating nuclear weapons in space. It has the same effect. Emps overload all electronic circuits that are not in faraday cadges.

As shown to us by takeing ice core samples about every 500 years the sun sends a very large CME our way. One so big it would be considers a tsunami. now that 500 years is just an average it can happen any time. The sun is on an 11 year cycle where it flips its poles. During this period sun spots, flares, and CMEs are much more frequent. It's called solar maximum. Monster CMEs are more likely to occur then. An "X" class flare is the largest catagory of solar flares. Then there is a scale behind the x much like the rictor scale for earth quakes. X3 X9s are very large flares, but nothing like an X85 or X100. When these huge CMEs hit earth the magnetic field churns producing massive ground currents and an emp pulse all over the earth.

The last time this happened was in 1859 and blew out the telegraph system. Fortunately for people at that time there were no electronics that they were reliant on.

As you know the world has changed since then. We use electricity for everything. Computers in our cars, gas pumps, water sanitation..... Etc etc etc. a global emp event will cripple the modern world.

It's not doom and gloom it's a cold hard fact. Unfortunately we are so locked into a world more and more reliant on small vulnerable electronics its running away with us. It's only a matter of time before its all gone. We evolved on this planet weathering the buffeting from the sun, but our technology has been created and expanded in such a small amount of time, it has not faced this threat yet. It will. And it will be disasterouse. The math works out to about a 5% chance every solar maximum. If you are young there is a pretty solid chance you will see it in your lifetime.

Life is exciting isn't it?

Edited November 6, 2013 by White Crane Feather

[George Ford]

Wait, won't the solar flare and emp blast hit only the side of the world in daylight? So everyone that was in the night side would still have working electronics. Also I saw in a film called Broken Arrow, that if you switch off your electronic devise and wait for the EMP blast to pass by then switch the device back on it should be fine?

_EDIT_

Do we get any sort of warning or would a big one juts hit us before we could do much about it. AND what about planes in the air at the time?

Edited November 6, 2013 by bulveye

[White Crane Feather]

Wait, won't the solar flare and emp blast hit only the side of the world in daylight? So everyone that was in the night side would still have working electronics. Also I saw in a film called Broken Arrow, that if you switch off your electronic devise and wait for the EMP blast to pass by then switch the device back on it should be fine?

_EDIT_

Do we get any sort of warning or would a big one juts hit us before we could do much about it. AND what about planes in the air at the time?

Yes we will get a warning. We will know it is coming. We will shut down power plants and try to protect the grid. This is effective for fairly large flares, but monster flares produce their own currents, and shutting them off doesn't do anything. Even if devices are saved by protecting them somehow, the grid is not. Massive currents will destroy it, and you only have the power you have without being able to replace it. I have a woodgass stove I bought at rei that recharges my phone from burning twigs. If I take it and put it in a microwave (a faraday cage) with the devices that I want saved, I can keep electricity. The problem is the tiny chips in vehicles, fuel pumps, etc. Without the flow of gasoline, the grocery stores run out of food. Most people no longer know how to take care of themselves without modern conveniences. Civil unrest soon follows in the face of hunger.

A CME takes several days to get here, and its much larger than the earth. The magnetic field wraps it around the earth. The currents are not caused by the CME energy itself. It is caused by the 'quivering' of the magnetic field which surrounds the earth. quivering is a bad example. Its like dropping a large rock in a pond and the waves of energy bounce back and forth. Regardless, there is no escape unless you are in a faraday cage. It wont hurt you, but you will see auroras all the way to the equator.

There are stories from 1859 that the auroras were so bright in Colorado that people could read a news paper with the light.

[Professor T]

Hmph!!

(Totally off subject, sorry)

But I noticed that someone had gone an given this topic a 1 star vote..

That p***es me off. This isn't about doom & gloom.. It's about raising awareness.. (Whoever it is should vote with their thoughts on screen and not in the shadows like a coward)

(rant over)

[White Crane Feather]

Hmph!!

(Totally off subject, sorry)

But I noticed that someone had gone an given this topic a 1 star vote..

That p***es me off. This isn't about doom & gloom.. It's about raising awareness.. (Whoever it is should vote with their thoughts on screen and not in the shadows like a coward)

(rant over)

Hhehehe yes some people do take an ostrige approach to these things. But there is no avoiding it. Like it or not our star is not some nice little fusion powered heater.

[White Crane Feather]

Hmph!!

(Totally off subject, sorry)

But I noticed that someone had gone an given this topic a 1 star vote..

That p***es me off. This isn't about doom & gloom.. It's about raising awareness.. (Whoever it is should vote with their thoughts on screen and not in the shadows like a coward)

(rant over)

Hahaha the irony... I have been arguing with Somone about something else and I informed him of something an old ethics professor of mine called the "professor's huff" hahahahaha.

[George Ford]

Yes we will get a warning. We will know it is coming. We will shut down power plants and try to protect the grid. This is effective for fairly large flares, but monster flares produce their own currents, and shutting them off doesn't do anything. Even if devices are saved by protecting them somehow, the grid is not. Massive currents will destroy it, and you only have the power you have without being able to replace it. I have a woodgass stove I bought at rei that recharges my phone from burning twigs. If I take it and put it in a microwave (a faraday cage) with the devices that I want saved, I can keep electricity. The problem is the tiny chips in vehicles, fuel pumps, etc. Without the flow of gasoline, the grocery stores run out of food. Most people no longer know how to take care of themselves without modern conveniences. Civil unrest soon follows in the face of hunger.

A CME takes several days to get here, and its much larger than the earth. The magnetic field wraps it around the earth. The currents are not caused by the CME energy itself. It is caused by the 'quivering' of the magnetic field which surrounds the earth. quivering is a bad example. Its like dropping a large rock in a pond and the waves of energy bounce back and forth. Regardless, there is no escape unless you are in a faraday cage. It wont hurt you, but you will see auroras all the way to the equator.

There are stories from 1859 that the auroras were so bright in Colorado that people could read a news paper with the light.

I think I read somewhere this week (not on this forum) that cars and planes are something like a Faraday cage? It's why you are safe from one in a lighting storm? But EMP is much different to lighting right?

Edited November 7, 2013 by bulveye

[White Crane Feather]

I think I read somewhere this week (not on this forum) that cars and planes are something like a Faraday cage? It's why you are safe from one in a lighting storm? But EMP is much different to lighting right?

Well kinda. Cars... A huge Maybe it has much to do with the atmospheric currents or the ground currents.. But defiantly planes. Planes are capable of surviving a lightning strike. There are pictures of them doing just that. But massive atmospheric currents with bubbling of the earths magnetic field is a pretty good question. The last time we detonated strong nuclear weapons and ..... At least tried to measure atmospheric effects was on the atol... But there were a few lights blown out far further than we ever expected,

I almost want to say planes are a faraday cage.... But!!! Huge atmospheric currents could be an I trusion. Lightning works differently than an emp.