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The Solar Superstorm of 2012
23 July 2014 | by As we hams bemoan the fact that sun spots are sparse currently we can't forget the power of the sun. Below is a link to an interesting article, recently published, and a video on what could have been a disastorous Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) in April of 2012.
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2014/23jul_superstorm/
It never hurts to have a back-up plan.
Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2014/23jul_superstorm/
It never hurts to have a back-up plan.
2 Responses to “The Solar Superstorm of 2012”
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Good article. Well, unlike most people hams are very aware of space weather. but it does concern me how casually LORAN was closed down because GPS could replace it, and how many folks rely on cell phones without any idea what a CME would do to these systems. I suppose the fiber optic and undersea cables would be okay, but that wouldn’t help much if all the surface and near space electronics is fried.
For years the risk of CME’s capable of destroying human civilization as we know it has been well known. Only a self obsessed, bloated, and dysfunctional government would ignore this threat and concentrate on questionable but “politically correct” issues such as “man-made” global warming.
For only a few additional U.S. Dollars per user per year, our telecommunications and power grid infrastructure (which is in the end government controlled) could be protected against the effects of a CME – or (God-forbid), a terrorist delivered nuclear EMP device.