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Power Cuts Threat as Sun Storm Hits Earth Tonight

Sunday, August 21, 2011 17:01

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A huge mass of electrically-charged particles thrown out by a gigantic eruption on the Sun is due to strike the Earth tonight.

Scientists expect it to trigger one of the most violent geomagnetic storms ever recorded.

The result could be widespread power surges and even blackouts, disrupted TV and mobile phone signals, and broken down communication satellites.

Power cuts threat as sun storm hits earth

Here Sunday, Aug 21 2011
At the same time the Northern Lights, normally confined to polar latitudes, may produce dazzling displays in the skies above southern Britain.

At least one satellite has already been knocked out of action by the storm. Japan’s space agency said its Kodama communications satellite had been temporarily shut down after malfunctioning.

The solar flare that caused the eruption burst out of a sunspot at 10.54am yesterday.

Experts said it was the strongest flare seen in the past 30 years. The explosion caused a coronal mass ejection (CME) which is now speeding towards Earth.

Disruption

Last week another CME only hit the Earth a glancing blow, yet was able to disrupt airline communications.

The solar flare was classified as an X18-category explosion, meaning it can trigger planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms.

Although the charged particles present no direct danger to people on the ground, they could have a devastating effect on electrical equipment.

Geomagnetic storms are classified on a scale of one to five. Initial indications are that the looming storm could reach the highest G5 level and last for 24 hours.

Northern Lights

The most obvious manifestation of the storm is likely to be glorious auroras lighting up the night sky.

Usually the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, is only visible in Britain from northern Scotland. The Earth’s magnetic field channels the solar particles that cause auroras towards the poles.

But experts say that over the next two days the Northern Lights may be seen at latitudes as low as Florida and Texas – and even south enough to cover the whole of Europe.

REMEMBER Just last Tuesday, 5 July 2011

HERE ‘Controlled’ power cuts likely as Sun storm threatens national grid

Officials in Britain and the United States are preparing to make controlled power cuts to their national electricity supplies in response to a warning of a possible powerful solar storm hitting the Earth. In an interview with The Independent, Thomas Bogdan, director of the US Space Weather Prediction Centre, said that controlled power “outages” will protect the..National Electricity Grids against damage which could take months or even years to repair should a large solar storm collide with the Earth without any precautions being taken.

Dr Bogdan is in close discussions with scientists in the UK Met Office to set up a second space weather prediction centre in Britain to co-ordinate a global response to a threat viewed seriously by both the US and UK governments. One topic of discussion is how to protect national electricity grids from the immense power surges caused by the geomagnetic storms which happen when highly energetic solar particles collide with the Earth’s magnetic field.

The most vulnerable parts of the grid are the hundreds of transformers connected to power lines many miles long that can experience sudden current surges during a geomagnetic solar storm, Dr Bogdan said. “It points to a potential scenario where large parts of either North America or northern Europe may be without power from between days or weeks, to perhaps months and, in extreme cases, there are estimates that it could last years,” Dr Bogdan said.

The aim of the joint US-UK collaboration is to improve solar weather forecasting to a point where it is possible to warn power companies of an imminent storm. There is a feeling that if a “category 5″ solar storm – the biggest of the five categories – were to be predicted, then taking the grid off-line before it is due to hit Earth and letting the storm pass would be better than trying to keep things running, he said.

In 1989, a solar geomagentic storm knocked out the electricity grid across large parts of Canada. The loss cascaded across the United States and caused power problems as far away as California. The greatest fear is a massive storm as big as the one documented by astronomer Richard Carrington in 1859, which burnt out telegraph wires.

“The sort of storms capable of doing that are fairly rare events. We refer to them as ‘black swans’,” Dr Bogdan said. “If the Carrington event occurred today, and power grid operators did not take efforts to safeguard their infrastructure, then we could be facing a scenario like that.”

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Comments

Total 3 comments

J

Seriously, I cannot find anything about this ‘storm’ on any of the space weather sites.

Where did the author get this information? They need to share a source.

Aug 21, 2011, 6:37 pm 0 Reply
J

Seriously, I cannot find anything about this ‘storm’ on any of the space weather sites.

Where did the author get this information? They need to share a source.

Aug 21, 2011, 6:37 pm 0 Reply
Justin

there was no storm. this author is notorious for posting bs. just glide right over it.

Aug 22, 2011, 6:25 am 0 Reply

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