Could a solar flare destroy modern civilization?

[SFC Ollie]

We have some EMP protection in a few military/govt systems.

But virtually no protections against the kind of discharges and such described in the article above.

It is quite simple to build a Faraday cage. I have one for my radio equipment. But then you'd have to be educated to know about those.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

We have some EMP protection in a few military/govt systems.

But virtually no protections against the kind of discharges and such described in the article above.

Telegraphs were non grounded DC circuits, I am pretty sure we stopped using those decades ago.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Forget about the 2012 Mayan calendar, comet Elenin or the Rapture. The real threat to human civilization is far more mundane, and it's right in front of our noses. If Fukushima has taught us anything, it's that just one runaway meltdown of fissionable nuclear material can have wide-ranging and potentially devastating consequences for life on Earth. To date, Fukushima has already released 168 times the total radiation released from the Hiroshima nuclear bomb detonated in 1945, and the Fukushima catastrophe is now undeniably the worst nuclear disaster in the history of human civilization.

But what if human civilization faced a far greater threat than a single tsunami destroying a nuclear power facility? What if a global tidal wave could destroy the power generating capacities of all the world's power plants, all at once?

Such a scenario is not merely possible, but factually inevitable. And the global tidal wave threatening all the nuclear power plants of the world isn't made of water but solar emissions.

Solar Flare Could Unleash Nuclear Holocaust Across Planet Earth, Forcing Hundreds of Nuclear Power Plants Into Total Meltdowns - International Business Times

Congratulations, that is the most idiotic article I have ever read.

Can you tell me how a single solar flare could wipe out every power gird on the planet at the same time, including the ones on the half of the planet that is facing away from the flare when it hits.

Then we have the fact that 2nd generation nuclear plants do not need auxiliary power to keep the coolant flowing because they are designed that way. Some of the research plants cannot meltdown no matter what you do to them, even if you drain all the coolant completely.

When dealing with magnetism(solar flare) you have to understand that the solar field that normally protects earth, but a tiny(percentage) amount of the total energy of the "solar flare" does curve back in at the poles. That is why you get the northern and southern lights. Here is a link to how the northern lights look; see how they're equally layed out throughout the northern polar area no matter what side of the planet...Well it has nothing to do with sun light or being on the dark side of the earth, but a question of magnetic energy moving inwards at the poles. SOLARCYCLE 24.com - Aurora Oval

The high energy particles that would knock out ground based power stations are not going to be deflected into the magnetosphere. If they were, they would not affect ground based installations because they would be deflected by the magnetosphere. That puts the bulk of the earth between them and the ground based installations on the other side of the planet.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

We have some EMP protection in a few military/govt systems.

But virtually no protections against the kind of discharges and such described in the article above.

You do not know that to be a fact. And once again if a flare massive enough to shut down the world occurred I am betting everyone on the sunny side of the earth would be facing a problem a lot worse then an EMP.

It is not EMP.
And yes I know electronics and have done testing in labs for UL certification on electronic products.

What do you think a solar flare is?

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd ain't takin' any chances...

... he been puttin' ice cubes in his tin-foil hat lately.

 

[skookerasbil]

LMAO...........you can always tell the guys who watch too much Discovery Channel!!!

People who worry about this shit fall into one category: they all need a beer and a plan!!

 

[Quantum Windbag]

LMAO...........you can always tell the guys who watch too much Discovery Channel!!!

People who worry about this shit fall into one category: they all need a beer and a plan!!

There is a real danger that a massive solar flare will wipe put our satellites, and even take out cell phones. It might even wipe out portions of the power grid, but only because it is so interconnected and fragile that one guy in Arizona doing a routine repair can take down the grid for all of Southern California. The chance of it triggering multiple meltdowns in every nuclear power plant on Earth is about the same as Chris actually understanding something he posts.

 

[editec]

I was under the impression that most homes with electic wiring were in effect Farraday cages.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

blame buooosh even for solar flares.

 

[SFC Ollie]

I was under the impression that most homes with electic wiring were in effect Farraday cages.

In a sense I suppose you may be right........ Hadn't thought about that......

 

[konradv]

Chris worried about the sun? I call bullshit. He has insisted the sun played no part in any warming on the Earth, why would he be worried about solar flares?

That's just BS. No one denies the sun plays a part in warming the earth. That's just the Denier Cult proving they worship the sun. To us it's just another factor NOT GOD , as the skeptics/deniers would have us believe.

 

[Old Rocks]

Interesting. All the denial of any danger, yet even run of the mill solar flares have shut down portions of the grid in recent times. Point is not that this is going to happen tomorrow, although there is a definate chance that it could, but that we can see it coming with our satellites. So we could get 17 to 24 hours warning. With that warning, are there any protocals to protect vulnable components. Civilian and military.

 

[editec]

I was under the impression that most homes with electic wiring were in effect Farraday cages.

In a sense I suppose you may be right........ Hadn't thought about that......

yeah isn't that the reason that homes don't really need lightening rods nowdays?

Because if the house is hit the charge follows the wiring down to ground?

Now if a really serious solar flarup happens all those transformer sitting on top of so many of our telephone poles WILL fry though.

Didn't that actually happen in Canada a few years ago? And didn't that cause a blackout in most of Eastern Canada, too?

 

[Old Rocks]

I was under the impression that most homes with electic wiring were in effect Farraday cages.

In a sense I suppose you may be right........ Hadn't thought about that......

yeah isn't that the reason that homes don't really need lightening rods nowdays?

Because if the house is hit the charge follows the wiring down to ground?

Now if a really serious solar flarup happens all those transformer sitting on top of so many of our telephone poles WILL fry though.

Didn't that actually happen in Canada a few years ago? And didn't that cause a blackout in most of Eastern Canada, too?

IPS - Space Weather - Power Failure in Canada During 1989


Space Weather
Power Failure in Canada During 1989
On March 13th, 1989 a huge solar induced magnetic storm played havoc with the ionosphere, and the earth's magnetic field. This storm, the second largest storm experienced in the past 50 years, totally shut down Hydro-Quebec, the power grid servicing Canada's Quebec province.

Montreal, March 15, 1989

Hydro-Quebec confirms that the March 13 blackout was caused by the strongest magnetic storm ever recorded since the 735-kV power system was commissioned. At 2:45 a.m., the storm, which resulted from a solar flare, tripped five lines from James Bay and caused a generation loss of 9,450 MW. With a load of some 21,350 MW at that moment, the system was unable to withstand this sudden loss and collapsed within seconds, thereby causing further loss of generation from Churchill Falls and Mania-Outardes.

Magnetic storms affect power system behaviour, mainly in that they cause transformer saturation, which reduces or distorts voltage. Hydro-Quebec's long lines and static compensators make the system particularly sensitive to such natural phenomena. For example, analysing the events that caused the March 13 blackout, the utility's experts noted a coincidence between the exceptional intensity of the magnetic storm and the tripping of several static compensators, especially at Chibougamau and La Verendrye substations. Immediately after this loss, records show voltage oscillations and power-swings increasing until the the lines from James Bay were lost. Within seconds, the whole grid was out of service.

The system-wide blackout resulted in a loss of some 19,400 MW in Quebec and 1,325 MW of exports. An additional load of 625 MW was also being exported from generating stations isolated from the Hydro-Quebec system.

Service restoration took more than nine hours. This can be explained by the fact that some of the essential equipment, particularly on the James Bay transmission network, was made unavailable by the blackout. Generation from isolated stations normally intended for export was repatriated to meet Quebec's needs and the utility purchased electricity from Ontario, New Brunswick and the Alcan and McLaren Systems.

By noon, the entire generating and transmission system was back in service, although 17 percent of Quebec customers were still without electricity. In fact, several distribution-system failures occurred because of the high demand typical of Monday mornings, combined with the jump in heating load after several hours without power

 

[gslack]

If we are hit by a massive solar flare we won't be able to do anything about it. Its like saying what if a massive tornado blew in and destroyed my town. Or what if you got hit by a car crossing the street. Its doom saying for the sake of doom saying... I ask you why?

Seriously, all of you warmers and doom watchers are morbid to the point I think you want the planet destroyed... Get a grip man, if something like that happens it happens but right now it hasn't so live a life. Damn you people need to get off your meds or get on some. With you its either we are gonna cook ourselves with CO2, and if that doesn't happen we will most assuredly cause some great catastrophe or witness one at any moment.

If a massive solar flare is coming what will you do? Seriously where ya going to run? Nowhere, and if it did happen you wouldn't know till it was too late anyway. Do you really think they would tell you the planets gonna be burnt by a massive solar flare when they find out ones coming? WHy would they? All it would do is cause a panic and rui what little bit of time there was left. Theres no where to run or hide and even if there were we couldn't take everyone. The largest portion of us would be gone, and no amount of fear mongering and what-ifs will change anything.

Honestly people let this shit go already.

 

[Immanuel]

LMAO...........you can always tell the guys who watch too much Discovery Channel!!!

People who worry about this shit fall into one category: they all need a beer and a plan!!

Too much Discovery Channel? Is there such a thing?

Immie

 

[CrusaderFrank]

When you stop letting the Church think for you (and I don't mean only the Christians here, I mean almost everybody), you'll see that civilization have been wiped out many times in just the past few hundred thousand years.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Interesting. All the denial of any danger, yet even run of the mill solar flares have shut down portions of the grid in recent times. Point is not that this is going to happen tomorrow, although there is a definate chance that it could, but that we can see it coming with our satellites. So we could get 17 to 24 hours warning. With that warning, are there any protocals to protect vulnable components. Civilian and military.

There is a difference between taking out the electrical grid by knocking out switching stations and causing multiple meltdowns all over the planet.One should be addresses, and the other should be treated with contempt.

 

[Old Rocks]

I see. Then, QW, you are stating that there are no nuclear plants that such a flare would negatively impact? And there is no possible way to to protect those those switching stations, or at least ameliorate the damage? And what about things that we the citizens could do to protect our electronics?

Why the denial of danger, and refusal to consider appropriate measures to prevent as much damage as we can?

 

[whitehall]

Are we so arrogant that we can't understand that the Sun is the source of life on Earth? Ice core samples show wild geological fluctuations in clmate ranging through several centuries. A solar flare probably wouldn't burn the asses of modern global warmists too much at first but changes in the sun's energy is what makes the world go around.