KEEP CALM POWER ON…
The worlds power grid dodged a historic solar storm in 2012 but how many more times can we be lucky?
A few weeks ago I was watching Doomsday Preppers on the National Geographic Channel and arrogantly snickering at a man who was preparing for a world-wide loss of the power grid due to a solar storm/flare. This prepper was convinced with great certainty that this disaster was going to occur very soon and he was preparing for the violence and strife that would follow. He was stockpiling food, water, medical supplies and yes weapons. He was also making preparations for secure shelter and transportation so that his family could survive this catastrophic event. I felt very smug and superior watching this alarmist make preparations that he will never need to employ.
Imagine my surprise when read a story claiming a giant solar storm had just missed the earth that would have knocked out the world’s entire power grid and all electrical devices that plug into a wall outlet causing trillions of dollars in damage. The extreme solar storm occurred in July of 2012 and it traveled at 3,000km per second. The sun expelled the biggest plasma cloud ever detected but by chance it missed the earth. According to Daniel Baker of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, “If it had hit, we would still be picking up the pieces.” He also said that, “I have come away from our recent studies more convinced than ever that Earth and its inhabitants were incredibly fortunate that the 2012 eruption happened when it did. If the eruption had occurred only one week earlier, Earth would have been in the line of fire.” NASA along with its colleagues in other organizations are studying the effect of this type of disaster on the modern world that is so dependent upon electricity for its everyday tasks.
According to NASA the 2012 storm would have initially caused communication, radio and GPS failures. This would have been followed by the electrons and protons accelerated by the blast, followed by the waves of the Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), a billion-ton cloud of magnetized plasma, bombarding the earth. A CME is a massive burst of solar wind and magnetic fields that rises above the suns surface and it hurtles into space.
NASA states prior to this incident there was the famed Carrington Event of Sept. 1859, named after English astronomer Richard Carrington who observed the solar flare. Following this event CMEs hit Earth and it cause intense Northern Lights as far south as Cuba and caused global disruption to the telegraph lines
The skeptical question that I ponder is did NASA release this information and dramatize it to justify an increase in its dwindling budget. Personally I am a supporter of NASA and I believe it plays an enormous role in the innovation and security of the United States. However NASA did have motivation to release this information to obtain the plethora of press coverage on this solar storm that could have caused mass devastation to the worlds society.
As a homeland security official I believe that it is our duty to prepare for these types of unforeseen or fantastic events. Although much of America looks at doomsday preppers as odd I believe they are employing imagination and innovation in preparation for homeland security events that most of society believes will never come. Perhaps like the doomsday preppers, the Department of Homeland Security should study and create contingency plans in case these unexpected and little looked for disaster actually occur.
