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Scientists warn solar flares could disrupt power grid
NASA's depiction of a sun storm
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by Alisa Roth
Space weather scientists meet in Washington, D.C. tomorrow to discuss the potential problems of solar flares, eruptions on the sun's surface that can cause massive disruptions in the electrical power grid.
Solar flares send off little bursts of radiation that travel down to the Earth, and can impact communications systems, GPS systems, satellites, power grids, aviation interests and polar regions, according to Bill Murtagh, who works at the Space Weather Prediction Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
And he says get ready for more: Solar activity comes in cycles, and the next one starts in 2013. "It could be ugly: a storm could disrupt credit card and ATM transactions. Cell phone networks could go." According to Murtagh, the entire power grid could get zapped, which could cause trillions of dollars of damage.
W Kent Tobiska runs a company that does space weather forecasting. He says we can predict sun storms better, but it may not help. "Frankly right now, there is probably not an immediate solution, but certainly a necessity to plan for contingencies in case those kinds of things happen.
Scientists say there have been big sun storms before, but we've never been this dependent on the technology they can disrupt.
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How many years have this been predicted by the Mayan Indians, and now they just want to tell us this about a new age. Come on this has been known for quite some time. Why are we just hearing about it now? When they knew about this a long time ago. Is our technology not up to date.
Air traffic controllers currently use Very High Frequency (VHF) and Ultra High Frequency (UHF) radios to issue control instructions to domestic flights to prevent collisions. Our radar screens display their postions so we may evaluate how their paths interact and then construct a series of instructions we issue to the pilots to turn, climb, descend, slow down or speed up or combination thereof with the goal of ensuring the flights pass at least 5 miles or 1000ft apart. Over a 30 year career I have seen where solar flares cause static bursts on the radios which block the speech of the ATC's and pilots. These missed instructions can and do cause near misses. If a major solar storm is expected with multiple sustained flare events then the FAA should develop a protocol for ATC's to use to provide an extra buffer of distance between flights during these times. The current impetus is to move more flights in closer proximity using the precision navigation equipment on the aircraft and conflict prediction analysis programs on the ground. However, the radios are still the way to convey the needed instructions and therefore the vulnerability to solar events will affect air safety.
Dr. Peter Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Mayor: What do you mean, "biblical"?
Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath of God type stuff.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly.
Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes...
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!
What is even more frightening, our power grid, like much of our infrastructure, is outdated and basically held together by chewing gum and duct tape. Replacement parts for burned out components aren't hard to get, many are impossible to get. From what I've read, a sufficiently powerful electromagnetic pulse would take down our grid and other electrical systems for months and probably for years. Imagine suddenly having a 19th century infrastructure: no clean water coming out of the tap, no heat, no lights, no food supplies because the transportation system is kaput, no communication systems. NO AMTs? That would be the least of our problems. And we don't need to wait for a solar flare; a nuclear weapon detonated in the atmosphere above the middle of the US would accomplish the same thing. I think that the average citizen hasn't heard about this because the consequences of inaction are so catastrophic that people don't want to think about it. A solar flare that causes sufficient disruption for about a week is probably the best thing that could happen to us, and is probably the only thing that will get moving on hardening all of our electronic system.
Its very frustrating to see how late these reports have reach the general public, since the knowledge of this current solar cycle has been predicted for years. Crisis management tends to fail & we the people will pay the price. Now trillions are needed to save the day & the electricity to avoid the largest problem our planet has faced in modern history.
Who can we send our concerns to?
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