What Would Happen if a Massive Solar Storm Hit the Earth?

Forums: Science, Solar Storm, No More Texting, Coronal Mass Ejections
Email this Topic • Print this Page

Coronal Mass Ejections

When the Sun flares up, it sometimes shoots a giant cloud of magnetized plasma off into space. This is called a coronal mass ejection (CME). CMEs are the slowest form of solar weather, taking anywhere from 12 hours to several days to reach the Earth. They’re also by far the most dangerous.

http://gizmodo.com/what-would-happen-if-a-massive-solar-storm-hit-the-eart-1724650105

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 9 • Views: 974 • Replies: 17

[+3] - Setanta - 12/17/2015And if someone opens the refrigerator they all hide under the nearest asteroid?

@edgarblythe,

I just hope we have enough time to get into a shelter underground. Earth must have been hit by these flares many times before, and life still survived.

0 Replies

@edgarblythe,

It would depend on how big it was, but these things typically don't impact us all that much. Some electrical systems get affected, but I can't remember even a single event which directly affected power or anything else in my area.

I think satellites and space station personnel have a rougher time of it, but I don't know the extent of any damage from past events.

0 Replies

Anybody in space would probably be toast, because the space agencies routinely say their ships are radiation proof, but they are not sufficient to protect against extraordinary events.

Electronic devices on earth would be toast because of electromagnetic pulse, if there were a massive coronal ejection. Smaller CMEs occur every day.

1 Reply

@edgarblythe,

And here I always thought the sun was my friend. ****, ya just can't trust nobody these here days, eh?

0 Replies

This is from the Wikipedia article on coronal mass ejections:

Quote:

On 1 August 2010, during solar cycle 24, scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) observed a series of four large CMEs emanating from the Earth-facing hemisphere of the Sun. The initial CME was generated by an eruption on 1 August that was associated with NOAA Active Region 1092, which was large enough to be seen without the aid of a solar telescope. The event produced significant aurorae on Earth three days later.

On 23 July 2012, a massive, and potentially damaging, solar superstorm (solar flare, CME, solar EMP) barely missed Earth, according to NASA. There is an estimated 12% chance of a similar event hitting Earth between 2012 and 2022.[21]

On 31 August 2012 a CME connected with Earth's magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, with a glancing blow causing aurora to appear on the night of 3 September. Geomagnetic storming reached the G2 (Kp=6) level on NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center scale of geomagnetic disturbances.

We dodged a bullet with that July, 2012 event. These things have not been a worry in the past, and have only been noticed because of aurorae seen by people on the "sun side" of the planet when they arrived. The danger for us is our heavy investment in electronic infrastructure. I don't know the probability of such a massive CME hitting us. EMP from a nuclear air burst over Washington or Moscow as a means of disrupting the enemy's communications was canvassed by both sides in the 1990s.

0 Replies

@Setanta,

Counter intuitively, there is something called a "Forbush decrease" which actually reduces cosmic ray exposure to astronauts during CME Events.

Here's the link: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2005/07oct_afraid

2 Replies

@rosborne979,

That's cool, because neither NASA nor Glavkosmos will admit that there's anything wrong with the fact that there has been no "re-engineering" of their space craft since the 1960s. I don't trust them.

0 Replies

@rosborne979,

So the danger in space would be huge solar storms without huge CMEs.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

So the danger in space would be huge solar storms without huge CMEs.

I guess so. But I think solar storms and CME's pretty much go hand in hand. I'm not sure if one leads to the other or if there is a common underlying event, but they seem to be linked.

Honestly I haven't read up on this much. I just remembered that there was some reason why astronauts were not at as high a risk from CME's as you might expect. And I was able to find that article which I think is what I was remembering.

1 Reply

@rosborne979,

Well, i need to read up on it, too. One factor, though, is that CMEs are directional (cf. the one mentioned in the Wikipedia quote that "missed" the earth), while the radiation from solar flares is just that, radiated. I'm glad you brought up the mitigating effect of CMEs--back to the drawing board. I just checked, though, and the ISS is within the lesser Van Allen radiation belts, which means that it's getting protection from them.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

I just checked, though, and the ISS is within the lesser Van Allen radiation belts, which means that it's getting protection from them.

Yes, as the article pointed out, everything in earth orbit is pretty much protected by the magnetic field. And even the bulk of the trip to the moon was covered by that field.

A Mars mission would be a whole different matter and this seems to be one of the main challenges NASA is facing.

1 Reply

@rosborne979,

rosborne979 wrote:

A Mars mission would be a whole different matter and this seems to be one of the main challenges NASA is facing.

I mentioned in one of the Mars threads my alarm at comments made at a symposium on traveling to Mars because people were saying that space ships as they are currently structured offer sufficient protection for the crews. That thought just appalls me, because in a voyage of eight or nine months, there is too strong a probability of a solar flare sending out a wave of radiation which could toast everyone on board the vessel. I've seen nothing comforting since then to suggest that this potential problem is being seriously addressed.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Maybe NASA could use the cockroach approach and send out droves and hope that maybe 2% make it Smile

2 Replies

@rosborne979,

And if someone opens the refrigerator they all hide under the nearest asteroid?

0 Replies

@rosborne979,

And if someone opens the refrigerator they all hide under the nearest asteroid?

1 Reply

@Setanta,

unless it's their ass-ter-risk *

0 Replies

Selling solarbrellas.
Choice of Seattle Seahawks or Washington Huskies logo.
Only $99.99. PayPal accepted. PM me for link.

Free shipping.

0 Replies

What Would Happen if a Massive Solar Storm Hit the Earth?

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know