I am sure that USA and Canada do stock up on switch gear, transformer, high tension cables and whatever they can. After all, we have had some pretty serious solar events in much more recent history. In March, 1989, Canada had to call up electricians from the USA, to repair their grid post haste.
The solutions do tend to be regional. After all, waiting for Australians to help the US would be rather absurd. And some nations, like China and Russia might not desire outside help.
In urban areas, change over to under-ground transmission and distribution provide added protection and are being done. But these things are not done all at once for economic reasons. And in regards to communication lines, fiber optic cable has taken over both for advantages in size and immunity to solar storms. Satellites can and do shut down into a safety mode in anticipation of such storms. We can see these flares long before they arrive
In sum, we are making progress. I just thing the NASA article is alarmist. The March 1989 event left a lost Canadians without any electrical service in middle of winter.
If you require 24/7 GPS to know where you are, well..... there you are. I am here.
Maybe we could station a satellite at the L1 Earth-Sun Lagrangian point. This might give us enough warning to shut down the power grid before the solar storm hits the Earth. I know there have been satellites there in the past, but I don't know if there are any satellite there currently.
I wonder about the "18th century" date in the subject line. Are we really thinking that a solar storm would knock us back to the 1700's? If only satellites got knocked out we would be back before the 1960's. If all the semiconductors got zapped we would also be around the1960's, except that most power and communications now relies on semiconductors. So without power and communications we're back in the mid-1800's, but still not in the 1700's.
There really is the possibility of a hidden agenda in preparedness against a sophisticated nuclear attack that would target this particular infrastructure. If you read the link to the March 1989 event, you will find that governments weren't quite sure if they were experiencing a solar flare or a nuclear event.
The way the world's diplomacy has gone lately, it is hard to say which scenario is really on the mind's of the world's leaders. The solution is pretty much the same.
Nonetheless I actually take comfort in that the world survived the event in the 1850's without people dropping like flies. I worry a bit that too much of what comes out of Hollywood is supposed to be factual and the basis for wise decisions.
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, also known as SOHO, is in a small orbit around L1. It's been through a lot of coronal mass ejections but is still in operation. It and the STEREO A&B spacecraft monitor the sun and would give us warning. SOHO also takes the hit from an earth-directed coronal mass ejection before we do, so it can provide good data on intensity. A direct measure is the best, of course, but we have some indirect ways too. There are other spacecraft monitoring the sun, as well as earth-based telescopes. Flares produce clear signatures across a wide spectrum so even if SOHO was toasted we would know if additional flares were occurring and how powerful they are. Spacecraft are the best sentries, but a lot can be told from ground-based observations. Besides, a sunspot needs to be fairly near the center of the visible disk for a CME to be earth-directed so any group that was flaring would only be pointing at us for a week or so at most. Smaller flares aren't much of a problem, and multiple events of the sort we're discussing are unlikely. If we got through the main event, we'd probably be OK.
Comments
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1989_geomagnetic_storm
The solutions do tend to be regional. After all, waiting for Australians to help the US would be rather absurd. And some nations, like China and Russia might not desire outside help.
In urban areas, change over to under-ground transmission and distribution provide added protection and are being done. But these things are not done all at once for economic reasons. And in regards to communication lines, fiber optic cable has taken over both for advantages in size and immunity to solar storms. Satellites can and do shut down into a safety mode in anticipation of such storms. We can see these flares long before they arrive
In sum, we are making progress. I just thing the NASA article is alarmist. The March 1989 event left a lost Canadians without any electrical service in middle of winter.
If you require 24/7 GPS to know where you are, well..... there you are. I am here.
I wonder about the "18th century" date in the subject line. Are we really thinking that a solar storm would knock us back to the 1700's? If only satellites got knocked out we would be back before the 1960's. If all the semiconductors got zapped we would also be around the1960's, except that most power and communications now relies on semiconductors. So without power and communications we're back in the mid-1800's, but still not in the 1700's.
The way the world's diplomacy has gone lately, it is hard to say which scenario is really on the mind's of the world's leaders. The solution is pretty much the same.
Nonetheless I actually take comfort in that the world survived the event in the 1850's without people dropping like flies. I worry a bit that too much of what comes out of Hollywood is supposed to be factual and the basis for wise decisions.
Read the following for what really happened in 1859.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859