Global Rumblings: NASA and NOAA,Warning of Solar Threat

Thursday, May 19, 2011

NASA and NOAA,Warning of Solar Threat

The Sun is Awakening

Richard Fisher, head of NASA's Heliophysics Division, explains what it's all about:
"The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity. At the same time, our technological society has developed an unprecedented sensitivity to solar storms. The intersection of these two issues is what we're getting together to discuss."

Electrical and Electronic Equipment will be in line for devastating destruction.

Threat to Satellite Communications,Navigation Systems, and Electrical Transmission

In Geneva, the senior NOAA official said that the intensitity of solar storms will peak in 2013, and the world's countries should prepare for "potentially devastating effects." Kathryn D. Sullivan, PhD, a former NASA astronaut, became the first woman to walk in space, told the UN weather conference in Geneva that, "it is not a question of if, but a matter of when a major solar event could hit our planet."

If it will 'peak in 2013' this means that it is building up and occurring now, in 2011, only growing more intense.

Expect that it will as gradually decrease in the years following 2013 in the same manner as it increased.

John Kappenman, an analyst with Metatech Corporation, a company that studies the effect of electromagnetic interference on power systems, said in the report that damaged transformers take a long time to repair.

From the Sun: Auroras, Magnetic Storms, Solar Flares, Cosmic Rays

Solar Storms can disable or destroy computer circuits, any and all electric and electronic equipment. They release particles which travel to the earth's magnetosphere, causing many geomagnetic anomalies.

Solar Storms Cause Blackouts, Impair Communications

According to the NAS report, “Collateral effects of a longer-term outage would likely include, for example, disruption of the transportation, communication, banking, and finance systems, and government services; the breakdown of the distribution of potable water owing to pump failure; and the loss of perishable foods and medications because of lack of refrigeration.”

The loss of services, it said, would spill over from one region of the country to the entire nation and potentially lead to international implications.

The price tag of such a calamity? Several trillion dollars per year, the report said.

'Sun Awakens': Scientists Warn of Solar Storms Ahead

The sun is getting ready to ramp up its activity and, when it does, we could be in for some real trouble, scientists say.

(NASA )

Restoring Power Grid Could

take More Than 12 Months

In well-documented cases involving heat failures in the transformers that undergird the power system, John Kappenman, an analyst with Metatech Corporation said it has taken 12 months or more to replace the damaged units with new ones.