Doomsday

[Sarongman]

Well Folks, doomsday has come and gone and the world hasn't flipped over, wobbled or been struck by an almighty comet. The four horsemen of the Apocalypse didn't pelt across the skies hollering and yahooing. The only people to be disappointed will be the fanatics who were not "raptured" .

There is still, however, a near doomsday scenario that could happen, and did happen in 1859 when technology was really in it's infancy. I refer to the Carrington event. At 11.18am GMT on th 1st September 1859, the respected solar astronomer Richard C. Carrington saw a pair of bright white crescents near a group of sunspots, this only lasted a little over 5 minutes but, by the time they had faded, a solar wind of high energy particles, travelling at 900km per second, set in motion the strongest geomagnetic storm in recorded history. Auroras were seen as far south as Cuba and Hawaii and as far north in this hemisphere as Sydney ans Santiago Chile. The only technology to be affected was the nearly new telegraph system. Telegraph operators reported sparks leaping off their equipment, melting wiring, exploding galvanic batteries and fires.

There was a solar storm on Valentines Day 2011. This, by killing a few satellites, wiped out radio communication in the western Pacific and parts of Asia and forced airlines to re-route arctic routes to avoid radio outages. It also disabled a few power grids. Compared to1859, however, this was a pipsqueak. Should we get another storm of massive intensity, power grids around the planet would blow leaving some of the worlds biggest cities without power for weeks or even months (transformers aren't easy to replace, especially in bulk!) Satellites will go off air permanently, anything requiring delicate electronics, such as modern cars, will be inoperative, no satellites means no GPS and these are used by the banks and stock markets, they will close for an indefinite time. Aircraft will not be able to fly without the hooking in of their GPS autopilots. No power= no refrigeration even if th circuiry doesn't fry 'cept those of us with a gas or kero. absorbtion fridge. Computers and the internet? Enjoy it while we can.

[Mugs-n-such]

*whew* I hope we never get that in my lifetime!

[Jack Williams]

I'll still be able to drive my Escort, as it has no electronics!

[Charlie]

Have any of these events been linked to a man putting on a skirt?

Charlie

[Sarongman]

Have any of these events been linked to a man putting on a skirt?

Course not! 1859? It's God's wrath for men abandoning skirted garments in the Industrial Revolution

[kingfish]

I'm betting it won't be that catastrophic.

The filtering I see (and have to) design into the electronics these days to prevent them from emitting presumably harmful RF interference have the unintended consequence of working both ways. In addition, that filtering is also pretty much independent of the components installed to prevent repeated electrostatic discharges in the tens of thousands of volts from damaging the system.

And I'm only working on the commercial stuff. The Mil spec hardware I'm sure gets the radation hardening and EMP suppression treatment. Google "rainbow bombs" to check out the results of what happened when the US tested nukes in the Van Allen belts.

If your house uses fuses, you may want to have sufficient spares to replace the lot. The typical surge suppressor does its job with a non-linear resistor that will shunt boatloads of current in an attempt to keep the voltage it passes below a non-damaging level. This, of course, if sustained, will trip circuit breakers and burn out fuses.

[Taj]

I'm going out now to buy several cartons of aluminum foil. If I wrap the cars and the house, disconnect the batteries, and open the main (given I have adequate notice) the foil should act as a Faraday Cage and protect everything. Guess I better stock up on guns and ammo, food, and water, too.