. Although the last CME happened on the farside of the Sun... its explosion was so powerful, the earth was hit by high-energy particles... and that sunspot area will be facing earth within the next week. The Sun Fires off its Third ‘Halo CME’ in as many days https://electroverse.net/the-sun-fires-off-its-third-halo-cme-in-as-many-days/ Also see: Farside Explosion Touches Earth https://spaceweatherarchive.com/2021/07/16/farside-explosion-touches-earth/ .
By 'real fun begins' are they referring to a Carrington Event? A CME directed at the earth results in an electromagnetic pulse as the solar radiation interacts with out magnetosphere. An EMP of sufficient strength will fry electronics, melt power lines and overload transformer stations. A CME in 1860 melted telegraph wires all over the nation (world?) and caused the Aurora Borealis to be visible from the southern US (and by some reports, all the way from the equator). A similar CME today, if directed at us, would literally knock is back to the dark ages, or forward to the 'zombie apocalypse.' I've yet to find an estimation on the relative strength of these ongoing CMEs that we may be orbitting into. I think I'll pick up some extra rice at the store today... ;D
The Sun Fires off its Third ‘Halo CME’ in as many days Women and minorities hit worst (sorry, I actually take CMEs seriously).
Could be If it happened before it can happen again. Fortunately, I like rice I also like Walmart's Great Value canned chicken. Cook raw rice with the [pre-cooked] canned chicken [and maybe some veggies] and you have a meal in one pot. .
Ironically, "women and minorities hit worst" could be true... depending upon the woman and the minority. .
I tried to delete that comment this being the science section and all but to no avail. Guess I waited too long. Anyway I'm glad nobody is trying to blame CMEs on human civilization so far.
" so far " If it turned out to be another "Carrington Event"... they will find some way to blame it on us. .
But we can control planetary forces like climate shifts . Maybe we need to get Befuddled Joe to add Solar Halo CMEs to the Paris Climate Agreement....tax that damn Sun into submission!
Look at it another way - enhanced radiation due to CMEs could make green energy solar panels more productive. That would be a good thing, no?
The Carrington event fried telegraph wires. Plus, estimates are that such an event could knock out communications, GPS and other satellites. It could knock out our electric grid, or at least parts of it - one reason for infrastructure improvement. I'd guess that kind of radiation would be a problem for solar pannels. My understanding is that in such conditions our ISS astronauts spend the 12 hours warning time stacking supplies to hide behind for "protection".
Latest research I've seen suggest its probably not the end of the world as we know it, hugely expensive and perhaps disruptive yes but not lethal. Firstly there's a fair bit of effort going into better forecasting and tracking so when a 'sun burp' does go off to give authorities will have 3-4 days advance warning. Which is enough time to make some preparations. Also again in some counties authorities are purchasing additional transformers and cabling to speed up recovery and have hardened some parts of the grid already. So the US (except Texas of course) might well recover sooner that you expect.
Are we (us) hardenning our grid? As of fairly recently I recall congress viewing it as a waste of money.
Congress might, the power companies might not. They're the ones who are going to have to pay for replacement infrastructure if things go bad. Can't say for sure whats happening in the US but a little digging round on the web might give a clearer picture of the status quo: re hardening etc. Wouldn't be pretty if/when it happens regardless but just shutting things down shortly before 'impact' and keeping them down until the event has passed (less than a day???) would be big help.
Hmm, maybe. My understanding was that it didn't matter if theres power in the system or not, the magnetic feild would overpower it regardless. But Im not exactly an electrical engineer... Either way, I doubt the power companies are preparing for something like that. Thats the sort of 'act of god' type thing that they tend to just plan to pile onto the insurance company, bureaucracies being what they are.
It's being looked into... I'm sure they'll get onto it as soon as they've finished looking into injecting disinfectants.
Same here I have no technical quals either. But assuming the equipment is shut off and earthed? Have to do some research. True. As I said my knowledge extends to only what I have read in some journals. I think I will do some more digging.
OK I found this. Its a report from Forbes magazine dated Feb this year. https://www.forbes.com/sites/starts...r-the-next-giant-solar-flare/?sh=2586122c196e On balance a direct hit would be bad, very bad but not civilization ending for the wealthy countries. However the situation in poorer countries would be far, far bleaker. It also includes a nice summery of the whats required to harden the grid. Turns out we were both right BTW. Isolating (switching off) as much of the grid as possible and earthing it are high up on the 'to do' list. Plus building up a stock of spare transformers and other parts.
Not to worry, everyone knows that if you stand in the middle and fire straight at a target that is moving around you it won't hit the target.
Solar Cycle 25 began last year. https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/...-nasa-noaa-scientists-explain-what-that-means
So, cycle 24 and the predicted cycle 25 are providing less than usual heating for Earth. Wtihout other factors, one would expect Earth to cool. However, Earth is heating - with other factors more than making up for our low output solar phase. This sounds to me like it would be bad news if these anomalous lows of solar heating revert to the standard, as they did following the two solar cycle Dalton minimum. If following cycle 25 we were to get the extra 1.5c of solar heating added to what we have now, that sounds pretty extreme to me. And, that seems especially true given that Earth is improving its ability to capture solar heat. Does that make sense?
It certainly would be interesting if our modern electronics all got shut down. What a massive shock it would be if all these screens were suddenly darkened and could not be restored or replaced for weeks, months, years.. It would suddenly be a very alien world, and one faced with a pretty huge crisis since we depend on this stuff for everything from work and pleasure to basic sustenance, not to mention financial transactions.
THIS one is facing earth. MAJOR FLARE WARNING: Sunspot AR2860 is big, angry, and it's directly facing Earth. The active region just unleashed a significant M4.7-class solar flare (Aug. 28 @ 0611 UT), probably hurling a CME toward Earth [* video at link below] If current trends continue, a major X-flare could be in the offing, so stay tuned. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text. See video * https://www.spaceweather.com/images2021/28aug21/m5_gold_crop.gif https://www.spaceweather.com/
Forget consumer electronics try no refrigeration, no artificial lighting, no traffic lights, no pumped fuel or water, no working sewerage systems, no processed food manufacturing (tins and bottles etc) .... the list goes on.
