Massive far side sun explosion Tuesday

brekke - February 18, 2022

News

interesting article and more encouragement for digital preparedness and a backup communication plan.  a local article and interviews a scientist from the Oregon Museum of Science Industry. This sunspot activity is from the same area that took out the satellites last week.

OMSI: Massive far side sun explosion could have been catastrophic

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I love space and wish we could fly around in it as casually as they do in the Star Wars movies. I would travel and see so many cool things. But for now, as a mere earthling, this kind of news is scary. 

Since no one has commented here, I’ll point out some things I found interesting

• Local space expert warns more extreme solar activity to come
• A solar flare stretching 400,000 kilometers exploded on the far side of the sun. If it had exploded on this side of the sun and was pointed towards us, I might never have the chance to type this message. 
• “If this storm was headed towards the Earth, it would cause a massive worldwide aurora effect, which some say would represent similarities to the 1859 Carrington Event.”
• “If this storm was directed our way, it very easily could have knocked out some of the satellites, the power grid, cell phones — the list goes down,”

 

I’ve been meaning to look for more news about this event and haven’t had time yet. I thought it was interesting that this flare came out of the same area of the flare that took out the Starlink satellites last week and that it would be facing us again in 11 days from the date of this event.

I don’t know much about the mechanics of flares, but I wonder if the direction it was facing had anything to do with the size of this flare or if it would have been exactly the same size had it been facing Earth? 

Honestly, grid down communications and hardened storage is something we haven’t crossed off the list yet, but that we need to get on ASAP. 

 

If such a large solar flare were to hit earth – a few questions as this is a scenario I have been aware of and do need to prepare more thoroughly for.

-do we expect motor vehicles would be affected?  Would our cars start?

-would the grid and cellphones all around the world be affected or would the effects be more localized?

-how much advance notice would we have and how do you think the general public would react?

-how long would we generally expect to be without power, cell phones, etc?  My understanding is about a year but I could absolutely be very far off. 

 

Here’s an article from Ready.gov that might answer some of those questions. But I think it’s hard to find answers because nobody really knows. Technology is so new (relatively speaking) and there have been so few large recorded events in that time that I think it’s hard for scientists to definitively say what will and won’t be affected. However, the advice for being prepared is the same as it is for other large scale emergencies – there are just some additional focus on special communications prep, as they do predict disruption to cell networks and satellites and possibly the power grid. Whether or not it would have a localized or global effect would depend on its size and duration and which side of the Earth is in its path when it reaches it. 

 

@LNMOt You’d probably find these articles interesting:

How to think about, protect against, and survive an EMP attack

Russian roulette with the sun: An interview with John Kappenman

Your car will probably be fine after an EMP

How long will GPS last if SHTF? What can break GPS?

 

Here’s another article on what you can do to protect electronics

Making and testing a trash can Faraday cage

 

I’ll do my best to share my understanding of the topic. I am in no way an expert though, and will just share what I have learned from others. Also, from what I’ve read, even the experts are not sure exactly what will happen, we haven’t had to experience this a society, and there are many what-ifs with a CME (solar flare) or EMP (man made).

-do we expect motor vehicles would be affected? Would our cars start?

I don’t believe that a CME would affect cars. And from the EMP car article that Carlotta Susanna shared, most cars will be okay after an EMP. Good news!

-would the grid and cellphones all around the world be affected or would the effects be more localized?

The grid will probably be affected, but your actual phone will probably be fine.

-how much advance notice would we have and how do you think the general public would react?

Keeping an eye on space weather websites can give you potentially a day’s heads up before even the mainstream media could get around to warning us. Most of society will probably not pay attention, care, or even know what to do in such an event. Some will panic and there may be some panic buying.

-how long would we generally expect to be without power, cell phones, etc? My understanding is about a year but I could absolutely be very far off.

At least a year is what I’ve heard from other prepping websites on how long it would take us to restore some sort of normalcy. Larger cities will take priority over smaller towns. 

Although this is not a hard and fast rule, from my understanding a CME would knock out the grid and an EMP would knock out smaller devices like your computer, fridge, possibly car, phone, etc… Both would be devastating and take us a long time to recover from. Have prepping gear that doesn’t rely on electricity as a back up in case something were to happen.

 

Does anyone have any insight or experience with EMPSHIELD.com . I have talked to their reps and they give tons of information. 

 

If you already talked with their reps you probably have more insights. What did you learn?

 

Let me see if I can summarize a few things.  You can easily protect your vehicle with the system and any communications systems using the 12v supply on you vehicle. the problem comes in with antenna attached to GMRS, CB or HAM. The antenna would act a collection point that allows somewhat of a backdoor collection array to fry your radio, therefore each radio would need to be individually protected. That gets expensive. The home protection is much along the same lines and my concern was my solar generators that I keep plugged in to 110. I have a few which are goal zero and LIONenergy. The home protection protects you home from surges but the sensitive solar charging controllers could still be impacted. they recommended faraday blankets for the generators. They have only tested one solar generator that has released proprietary information to them. I will say the conversation included the company really caters to Americans….I hope this doesn’t get out because some idiot will want to protest against them! the young guy ended the conversation with be safe and God bless! another positive mark in my book.