Plasma spray from the Sun. Photo credit: Chris Christner
As if “Debtaggedon”, famine in Somalia, unrest in the Arab world, and the threat of yet another global financial meltdown weren’t enough, scientists have more distressing news: The Sun hates us.
The specific worry is so-called “solar storms”, a stream of charged particles that erupt from the Sun which, under the right conditions, can create errant electrical currents in the Earth’s magnetosphere. In the last week, three large explosions from the Sun – “solar storms” – prompted US government scientists to warn power companies, telecommunications companies, and users of anything electrical to prepare for a disruption in services, Reuters reported.
That’s because the world’s electrical grid is vulnerable to these fluctuations – in 1989, a solar storm took out the power grid in Quebec, Canada, leaving 6 million people without power for several hours. The largest solar storm ever recorded occurred in 1859, when telecommunications and electrical infrastructure were extremely limited; during the so-called Carrington Event, telegraph offices reported electrical shocks, fires, and telegraph systems sending and receiving signals even after the batteries were turned off.
That was bad, but scientists and freak-out reporters say that if it happened today, it could be much, much worse. Victoria Jaggard, writing at National Geographic, warned, “Storms are brewing about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) away, and if one of them reaches Earth, it could knock out communications, scramble GPS, and leave thousands without power for weeks to months.” Reuters, notably, was a bit more calm in its report of the potential damage from solar storms: The news agency didn’t mention Armageddon exactly, but did say that the storms may cause an aurora as far south as Minnesota and Wisconsin.
At least Armageddon will look pretty:
This is, of course, not the first time that scientists and others have warned that a major solar storm could cause significant global damage. Last August, we flagged up a claim from a US-based scientist that death might be coming from above – Lawrence Joseph warned in an op-ed for The New York Times that America needed to prepare, the sooner the better, for the eventual solar storm. And in February, The Daily Mail warned that the Earth is “overdue” for a massive solar storm, especially as the Sun enters its most active period, and that we ought to prepare for a “Global Katrina”.
Nick Greene at The Village Voice warned back in March that the Sun is waking up in a really “crappy” mood these days and the possible side effects include: “Power plants will blow up. Your GPS will give you bad directions and its obnoxious robot voice will laugh as you frantically try to dodge chunks of exploded power plant debris. When you pay for gas a satellite will fall onto your car.” Of course, it’s not all bad news – scientists can predict solar storms and even the most violent ones only last for a few hours.