The fall/winter of 2012 is the top of an unusually high solar cycle with the earth at its most venerable tilt and the earths magnetic field is very weak, possibly at the point of collapse and reversal. If we (or some place on earth) get hit with a big solar flare, head on, not only will we get caught with an electrical crippling blast, but possibly, if the orientations are just right, a dose of dangerous hard radiation and particles.
I don’t want to get the whole 2012 end of the world thing going but it could at least be rough on electronics which could as close to an EOTWAWKI event as I which to see. 230gr
This is a true treat: See the sources below:
http://www.newscientist.com/article...rt-90-seconds-from-catastrophe.html?full=true
New Scientist magazine
Space storm alert: 90 seconds from catastrophe
IT IS midnight on 22 September 2012 and the skies above Manhattan are filled with a flickering curtain of colourful light. Few New Yorkers have seen the aurora this far south but their fascination is short-lived. Within a few seconds, electric bulbs dim and flicker, then become unusually bright for a fleeting moment. Then all the lights in the state go out. Within 90 seconds, the entire eastern half of the US is without power.
A year later and millions of Americans are dead and the nation's infrastructure lies in tatters. The World Bank declares America a developing nation. Europe, Scandinavia, China and Japan are also struggling to recover from the same fateful event - a violent storm, 150 million kilometres away on the surface of the sun.
It sounds ridiculous. Surely the sun couldn't create so profound a disaster on Earth. Yet an extraordinary report funded by NASA and issued by the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in January this year claims it could do just that.
The surface of the sun is a roiling mass of plasma - charged high-energy particles - some of which escape the surface and travel through space as the solar wind. From time to time, that wind carries a billion-tonne glob of plasma, a fireball known as a coronal mass ejection (see "When hell comes to Earth"). If one should hit the Earth's magnetic shield, the result could be truly devastating.
According to the NAS report, the impact of what it terms a "severe geomagnetic storm scenario" could be as high as $2 trillion. And that's just the first year after the storm. The NAS puts the recovery time at four to 10 years. It is questionable whether the US would ever bounce back.
4-10 years to recover
"I don't think the NAS report is scaremongering," says Mike Hapgood, who chairs the European Space Agency's space weather team. Green agrees. "Scientists are conservative by nature and this group is really thoughtful," he says. "This is a fair and balanced report."
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20127003.100-space-weather-warning.html
When hell comes to Earth
Severe Space Weather Events - Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts (National Academies Press)
Severe space weather events often coincide with the appearance of sunspots, which are indicators of particularly intense magnetic fields at the sun's surface.
The chaotic motion of charged particles in the upper atmosphere of the sun creates magnetic fields that writhe, twist and turn, and occasionally snap and reconfigure themselves in what is known as a "reconnection". These reconnection events are violent, and can fling out billions of tonness of plasma in a "coronal mass ejection" (CME).
If flung towards the Earth, the plasma ball will accelerate as it travels through space and its intense magnetic field will soon interact with the planet's magnetic field, the magnetosphere. Depending on the relative orientation of the two fields, several things can happen. If the fields are oriented in the same direction, they slip round one another. In the worst case scenario, though, when the field of a particularly energetic CME opposes the Earth's field, things get much more dramatic. "The Earth can't cope with the plasma," says James Green, head of NASA's planetary division. "The CME just opens up the magnetosphere like a can-opener, and matter squirts in."
The sun's activity waxes and wanes every 11 years or so, with the appearance of sunspots following the same cycle. This period isn't consistent, however. Sometimes the interval between sunspot maxima is as short as nine years, other times as long as 14 years. At the moment the sun appears calm. "We're in the equivalent of an idyllic summer's day. The sun is quiet and benign, the quietest it has been for 100 years," says Mike Hapgood, who chairs the European Space Agency's space weather team, "but it could turn the other way." The next solar maximum is expected in 2012.
Space weather warning
experts call it "dependency creep". The global positioning system has grown to become a pillar of modern life at a time when our local star has been calm. Over the coming years, however, worsening space weather is likely to cause GPS failures on a weekly basis.
According to a recent National Academy of Sciences report, every signal failure could cost a single offshore oil rig as much as $2 million, as GPS is used to keep the platform in place. And light aircraft without backup navigation systems could encounter unprecedented dangers. This is just the tip of the iceberg, yet politicians are unlikely to react to warnings of possible space weather catastrophes. Perhaps more traditional ways of catching their attention - devastating loss of lives and money - will do the trick
http://www.examiner.com/x-2912-Seattle-Exopolitics-Examiner~y2009m4d1-
2012-may-bring-the-perfect-storm--solar-flares-systems-collapse
2012 may bring the “perfect storm” – solar flares, systems collapse
Long scorned as “mysticism” and “parascience,” concern about the year 2012 has now surfaced in a mainstream NASA report on the potential impacts on human society of solar flares anticipated to peak in 2012.
http://www.astrobio.net/news/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3069
The Day the Sun Brought Darkness
Based on a NASA news releaseOn March 13, 1989, the entire province of Quebec, Canada suffered an electrical power blackout…. The Quebec Blackout was different, because this one was caused by a solar storm.
I don’t want to get the whole 2012 end of the world thing going but it could at least be rough on electronics which could as close to an EOTWAWKI event as I which to see. 230gr
This is a true treat: See the sources below:
http://www.newscientist.com/article...rt-90-seconds-from-catastrophe.html?full=true
New Scientist magazine
Space storm alert: 90 seconds from catastrophe
IT IS midnight on 22 September 2012 and the skies above Manhattan are filled with a flickering curtain of colourful light. Few New Yorkers have seen the aurora this far south but their fascination is short-lived. Within a few seconds, electric bulbs dim and flicker, then become unusually bright for a fleeting moment. Then all the lights in the state go out. Within 90 seconds, the entire eastern half of the US is without power.
A year later and millions of Americans are dead and the nation's infrastructure lies in tatters. The World Bank declares America a developing nation. Europe, Scandinavia, China and Japan are also struggling to recover from the same fateful event - a violent storm, 150 million kilometres away on the surface of the sun.
It sounds ridiculous. Surely the sun couldn't create so profound a disaster on Earth. Yet an extraordinary report funded by NASA and issued by the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in January this year claims it could do just that.
The surface of the sun is a roiling mass of plasma - charged high-energy particles - some of which escape the surface and travel through space as the solar wind. From time to time, that wind carries a billion-tonne glob of plasma, a fireball known as a coronal mass ejection (see "When hell comes to Earth"). If one should hit the Earth's magnetic shield, the result could be truly devastating.
According to the NAS report, the impact of what it terms a "severe geomagnetic storm scenario" could be as high as $2 trillion. And that's just the first year after the storm. The NAS puts the recovery time at four to 10 years. It is questionable whether the US would ever bounce back.
4-10 years to recover
"I don't think the NAS report is scaremongering," says Mike Hapgood, who chairs the European Space Agency's space weather team. Green agrees. "Scientists are conservative by nature and this group is really thoughtful," he says. "This is a fair and balanced report."
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20127003.100-space-weather-warning.html
When hell comes to Earth
Severe Space Weather Events - Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts (National Academies Press)
Severe space weather events often coincide with the appearance of sunspots, which are indicators of particularly intense magnetic fields at the sun's surface.
The chaotic motion of charged particles in the upper atmosphere of the sun creates magnetic fields that writhe, twist and turn, and occasionally snap and reconfigure themselves in what is known as a "reconnection". These reconnection events are violent, and can fling out billions of tonness of plasma in a "coronal mass ejection" (CME).
If flung towards the Earth, the plasma ball will accelerate as it travels through space and its intense magnetic field will soon interact with the planet's magnetic field, the magnetosphere. Depending on the relative orientation of the two fields, several things can happen. If the fields are oriented in the same direction, they slip round one another. In the worst case scenario, though, when the field of a particularly energetic CME opposes the Earth's field, things get much more dramatic. "The Earth can't cope with the plasma," says James Green, head of NASA's planetary division. "The CME just opens up the magnetosphere like a can-opener, and matter squirts in."
The sun's activity waxes and wanes every 11 years or so, with the appearance of sunspots following the same cycle. This period isn't consistent, however. Sometimes the interval between sunspot maxima is as short as nine years, other times as long as 14 years. At the moment the sun appears calm. "We're in the equivalent of an idyllic summer's day. The sun is quiet and benign, the quietest it has been for 100 years," says Mike Hapgood, who chairs the European Space Agency's space weather team, "but it could turn the other way." The next solar maximum is expected in 2012.
Space weather warning
experts call it "dependency creep". The global positioning system has grown to become a pillar of modern life at a time when our local star has been calm. Over the coming years, however, worsening space weather is likely to cause GPS failures on a weekly basis.
According to a recent National Academy of Sciences report, every signal failure could cost a single offshore oil rig as much as $2 million, as GPS is used to keep the platform in place. And light aircraft without backup navigation systems could encounter unprecedented dangers. This is just the tip of the iceberg, yet politicians are unlikely to react to warnings of possible space weather catastrophes. Perhaps more traditional ways of catching their attention - devastating loss of lives and money - will do the trick
http://www.examiner.com/x-2912-Seattle-Exopolitics-Examiner~y2009m4d1-
2012-may-bring-the-perfect-storm--solar-flares-systems-collapse
2012 may bring the “perfect storm” – solar flares, systems collapse
Long scorned as “mysticism” and “parascience,” concern about the year 2012 has now surfaced in a mainstream NASA report on the potential impacts on human society of solar flares anticipated to peak in 2012.
http://www.astrobio.net/news/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3069
The Day the Sun Brought Darkness
Based on a NASA news releaseOn March 13, 1989, the entire province of Quebec, Canada suffered an electrical power blackout…. The Quebec Blackout was different, because this one was caused by a solar storm.
