| Almost started blogging about day 56 in the Gulf disaster and realized I was getting over the top with my anger and frustration, especially after Sen. John “tan-in-a-can” Boehner’s comment today that the U.S. taxpayers should cover some of the cost of the cleanup.
Teeth and fists clenched, I thought better of the blog.
Instead, I’ll say that just when you didn’t think things could get worse, I read today that we’re about to enter into a cycle of a solar maximum.
For whatever reason (scientist’s still don’t know why) our sun is on an 11-year cycle — we’re just coming out of the solar minimum, an 11-year period when sun spots and solar flares are relatively quiet.
Now, like clockwork, the sun gets a little worked up, throwing off solar flares and emitting radiation in a crazy display of solar hyperactivity.
Scientists predict that this activity will peak in 2013 and it could equal the solar maximum of 1859 — specifically, the notorious Carrington Event — a geomagnetic storm so fierce that telegraph operations were shut down, Aurorae were seen worldwide (with the aurora over the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, “so bright, the glow awoke gold miners, who began preparing breakfast because they thought it was morning”).
Of course, we’re light-years ahead in technology than we were in 1859 and a similar solar storm could shut down global communications and networks for months.
Imagine that: power grids fried out, no computers (or Internet), phones or cellular communications, no radio, television or other communications for months. Talk about a luddite’s dystopian fantasy.
The good news is, that, given sufficient warning, satellites could be signaled to go into safe mode and the planet would experience a momentary blackout as the planet girded itself for the massive wave of solar particles and energy — think of turning off a surge protector’s on switch during a thunderstorm. Once the storm passes (a matter of seconds), systems and networks would be rebooted, circuits and components still intact.
The downside is that the force of the Carrington event was immense — and fast. While most Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) take about three to four days to reach the earth (subject to the sun’s gravity as well as the gravity inherent in the CMEs own mass, the CME in the Carrington event took just 18 minutes to reach the Earth: A remarkable testament to the power of that solar storm.
Break out the sun block (PF 1200), your lawn chairs and your battery-operated radios — and have yourself a safe and happy solar maximum!
|
