Monday, March 07, 2011

What If the Biggest Solar Storm on Record Happened Today?

What If the Biggest Solar Storm on Record Happened Today?

This article highlights the possibility of a large coronal mass ejection during the current solar cycle, but vastly underestimates the effects. It mentions damage to GPS and communications satellites, or extended power outages of weeks, months or years.

This article does not even begin to address the devastation such an event would create. As the government's EMP commission reported:
All of the critical functions of US society and related infrastructures—electric
power, telecommunications, energy, financial, transportation, emergency services, water,
food, etc.—have electronic devices embedded in most aspects of their systems, often providing critical controls.
Imagine if all those services just went away. Power goes out. Cell phones. Portable radios. You have no information about what has happened and no way to get any. Your car won't start. Within a very short time food will start to run out, and then...

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