tangent4ronpaul
02-18-2011, 10:05 AM
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/0217/Solar-flare-2011-How-a-dazzling-display-can-wreak-electrical-havoc
Solar flare 2011: How a dazzling display can wreak electrical havoc
http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/images/0217-solar-flare-2011/9611898-1-eng-US/0217-solar-flare-2011_full_380.jpg
As we were reminded this week, the sun is no placid sphere that uniformly radiates warmth. On the contrary, our star roils, churns, belches, and, every now and then – just to remind us who really runs things in this solar system – spits fire in our direction.
It could have been much worse. In March 1989, a blast of solar wind tripped circuit breakers on Hydro-Québec's power grid, leaving six million people without electricity for nine hours. Later that year, another solar eruption caused computer crashes that brought trading on Toronto's stock market to a halt.
[...]
According to the Times, the telegraphs ran on nothing but electrified air for two hours.
This happened at the dawn of the electric age. Today, a comparable solar flare could devastate our infrastructure. A 2008 report by the National Academy of Sciences found that a major solar storm could cause twenty times the economic damage of hurricane Katrina.
YEEE HHHAAAAA!
Got candles?
-t
Solar flare 2011: How a dazzling display can wreak electrical havoc
http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/images/0217-solar-flare-2011/9611898-1-eng-US/0217-solar-flare-2011_full_380.jpg
As we were reminded this week, the sun is no placid sphere that uniformly radiates warmth. On the contrary, our star roils, churns, belches, and, every now and then – just to remind us who really runs things in this solar system – spits fire in our direction.
It could have been much worse. In March 1989, a blast of solar wind tripped circuit breakers on Hydro-Québec's power grid, leaving six million people without electricity for nine hours. Later that year, another solar eruption caused computer crashes that brought trading on Toronto's stock market to a halt.
[...]
According to the Times, the telegraphs ran on nothing but electrified air for two hours.
This happened at the dawn of the electric age. Today, a comparable solar flare could devastate our infrastructure. A 2008 report by the National Academy of Sciences found that a major solar storm could cause twenty times the economic damage of hurricane Katrina.
YEEE HHHAAAAA!
Got candles?
-t