Work is the curse of the drinking classes - Oscar Wilde
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Boffins fear solar flares will toast networks
NASA SCIENTISTS are worried that the sun is getting ready to turn all our WiFi networks and communications satellites into something similar to early versions of oven fries.
Richard Fisher, head of NASA's Heliophysics Division has gotten all prophetic and dashed out a press release in the style of a 2012 looney.
He said that the sun is waking up from a deep slumber and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity. But at the same time our technological society has developed an unprecedented sensitivity to solar storms.
Smart power grids, GPS navigation, air travel, financial services and emergency radio communications can all be knocked out by intense solar activity. A century-class solar storm, he warned, could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina.
Most of the damage can be avoided if managers know a storm is coming. They can put satellites in 'safe mode' and disconnecting transformers can protect these assets from damaging electrical surges.
At the moment though accurate forecasting of solar storms is still at the "what hurricane?" level of evolution.
Thomas Bogdan, director of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado said that weather forecasting is still in its infancy, but "we're making rapid progress".
In the meantime it might be a good idea to liberally rub sun screen into your WiFi box, and maybe pick up an electrical generator for emergencies. µ
Tags: Boffin watch
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I guess we are due a re-run of carrington at some point. Last year i read reports that postal workers in the US were warned to cover themselves in case of a breakdown from a solar flare, i guess to keep post circulating.
Its a bit difficult to mitigate the damage caused by a solar flare, but its the same drill for peak oil or any emergency; have a plan a, plan, b and plan c, then have a strategy for long term prosperity should you have to go it alone.
Unscientific. Solar flares help charge up the ionisphere, and allow us to bounce high frequency radio off it and back to earth. But microwaves pass thru the ionisphere, allowing easy communications to spacecraft/satellites/the moon on those frequencies. So as long as you're not trying to send HF to satellites, no problem. WiFi is in the microwave range, so no problem there.
So my hopes for all those new-fangled satellites to be knocked out will probably be dashed.
Perhaps it's just funding time again at NASA, NOAA.
Global electric grid will be fried at some point by either a solar flare, a gamma ray burst or maybe a EMP weapon. THIS is not a maybe. The grease that makes modern civilization possible is the ability to exchange goods and services for electronic currency. All the specialization that enables society to build complexity. Don't be worried about your GPS not working, be worried about what happens when the flow of money stops and the complexity implodes.
http://2012forum.com/forum/index.php seems like a good place to look to get an idea of the style of a 2012 looney.
I think the sunspot maximum is due around 2014-2015.