Finally got some overdue major media attention. However, for at least the past two years, Space Weather News and Daily Earth Science reports uploaded to YouTube by Suspicious Observers have been regular features on this blog. Strangely, few people pay attention to these numerous and repeated posts that help explain more about Planet Earth than weather reports, storms, hurricanes,climate change, earthquakes and volcanoes.
". . .While invisible and harmless to anyone on the Earth’s surface, the geomagnetic waves unleashed by solar storms can cripple power grids, jam radio communications, bathe airline crews in dangerous levels of radiation and knock critical satellites off kilter.
The sun began a new 11-year cycle last year and as it reaches its peak in 2025 the specter of powerful space weather creating havoc for humans grows, threatening chaos in a world that has become ever more reliant on technology since the last big storms hit 17 years ago.
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BLOGGER NOTE: There may be NOTHING THAT TECHNOLOGY CAN DO TO STOP THIS
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Solar Storms Are Back, Threatening Power Grids and Satellites
By Brian K Sullivan- Power grid, radios, satellites are vulnerable as cycle builds
- Scientists hope better forecasting will help prevent disaster
A few days ago, millions of tons of super-heated gas shot off from the surface of the sun and hurtled 90 million miles toward Earth.
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BLOGGER NOTE: Photo Credit, but why from 2012? Readers of this blog can get almost real-time videos, but it takes a few days to travel millions of miles > please scroll farther into older posts for Coronal Mass Ejections and/or use the searchbox for CMEs
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Continuing from Bloomberg
The eruption, called a coronal mass ejection, wasn’t particularly powerful on the space-weather scale, but when it hit the Earth’s magnetic field it triggered the strongest geomagnetic storm seen for years. There wasn’t much disruption this time -- few people probably even knew it happened -- but it served as a reminder the sun has woken from a years-long slumber. . .
“It is still remarkable to me the number of people, companies, who think space weather is Hollywood fiction,” said Caitlin Durkovich, a special assistant to U.S. President Joe Biden and senior director of resilience and response in the National Security Council, during a talk at a solar-weather conference last month. . .
1 > There’s debate among scientists about how much can be done to shield vulnerable parts of the planet’s infrastructure from the effects of solar storms. Steps such as using non-magnetic steel in transformers and installing more surge protectors in the grid could bolster resistance, but in the end the best defense against catastrophe might be better forecasting.
2 > While Earth-bound observers can see explosive storms erupt on the sun, they can’t tell the true nature of the threat -- exactly how potent it is -- until the blast reaches a set of satellites 1 million miles from the planet. At that point, there is only 60 to 90 minutes until it hits Earth.
3 > “Our ability to understand and predict the solar cycle is still very limited,” said William Murtagh, director of the U.S.
4 > The most powerful geomagnetic storm ever recorded resulted in the 1859 Carrington Event, when telegraph lines electrified, zapping operators and setting offices ablaze in North America and Europe. If a storm of that magnitude were to hit today, it would likely cut power to millions if not billions of people.
“When I first started on this road and was briefed on space weather I raised an eyebrow,” said Prouse. “It is much more mainstream and some of the mystification is gone. You can now raise it as a risk and not get laughed at.”
“When I first started on this road and was briefed on space weather I raised an eyebrow,” said Prouse. “It is much more mainstream and some of the mystification is gone. You can now raise it as a risk and not get laughed at.”
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