Dark Days Ahead

[Djorn]

So there is an internet story running around at the moment about 6 days of darkness in December, Although this is a hoax as a prepper it makes you think outside the box. What if the six days of darkness was in fact six days of extreme CME activity. I am talking about huge x28+ CME or Carrington Events, enough to bathe the planet in 6 days of intense electromagnetic radiation. It would cause every electrical device on the planet to fail, even in a protected environment it would be a challenge to maintain a working grid. So instead of 6 days of actual darkness it is a period of time when everything fails.....forever !!!

How ready are you?

Dj

[poppypiesdad]

Sorry could be this flu thing ive got whats CME ?

j

[preppingsu]

CME - coronal mass ejection. The sun has been pretty activity recently, making a few people who study the sun sweat a little.

Yes it could be a problem, I'm more eclined to think we'll have power outage due to lack of generating power stations and increased demand.

But we'll see!

[Stasher]

Sorry could be this flu thing ive got whats CME ?

j

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronal_mass_ejection
When the ejection is directed towards Earth and reaches it as an interplanetary CME (ICME), the shock wave of the traveling mass of solar energetic particles causes a geomagnetic storm that may disrupt Earth's magnetosphere, compressing it on the day side and extending the night-side magnetic tail. When the magnetosphere reconnects on the nightside, it releases power on the order of terawatt scale, which is directed back toward Earth's upper atmosphere.

Solar energetic particles can cause particularly strong aurorae in large regions around Earth's magnetic poles. These are also known as the Northern Lights (aurora borealis) in the northern hemisphere, and the Southern Lights (aurora australis) in the southern hemisphere. Coronal mass ejections, along with solar flares of other origin, can disrupt radio transmissions and cause damage to satellites and electrical transmission line facilities, resulting in potentially massive and long-lasting power outages.[6][7]

Humans at high altitudes, as in airplanes or space stations, risk exposure to relatively intense cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are potentially lethal in high quantities. The energy absorbed by astronauts is not reduced by a typical spacecraft shield design and, if any protection is provided, it would result from changes in the microscopic inhomogeneity of the energy absorption events.[8]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859
The solar storm of 1859, also known as the Carrington Event,[1] was a powerful geomagnetic solar storm in 1859 during solar cycle 10. A solar coronal mass ejection hit Earth's magnetosphere and induced one of the largest geomagnetic storms on record. The associated "white light flare" in the solar photosphere was observed and recorded by English astronomers Richard C. Carrington and Richard Hodgson.

Studies have shown that a solar storm of this magnitude occurring today would likely cause widespread problems for modern civilization. There is an estimated 12% chance of a similar event occurring between 2012 and 2022.[2]

Something else to look forward to!

[poppypiesdad]

Thank you all
j

[Decaff]

Just to double check, if a CME happened, would I need to remove batteries from my torches, lanterns etc or would they be OK if switched off?? I get rather confused!

[raz]

Just to double check, if a CME happened, would I need to remove batteries from my torches, lanterns etc or would they be OK if switched off?? I get rather confused!

Its best to keep anything electrical u have for preps stored in a type of faraday cage for safety ( I use a metal bin I got from B&Q for £1 because it had a dent in it ) the item doesn't have to be switched on for it to be effected by an EMP as the pulse itself carries the energy that destroys circuits etc

[ukpreppergrrl]

Just to double check, if a CME happened, would I need to remove batteries from my torches, lanterns etc or would they be OK if switched off?? I get rather confused!

Batteries are unaffected. Torches will be unaffected unless they're whizzy jobbies with fancy integrated circuits. It's integrated circuits that are vulnerable to electromagnetic pulse surges. I'm not an electrical engineer but from what I've read I think that a CME by itself isn't likely to be enough to cause your computer's circuit board to explode. That would require an EMP strike from a nuclear device. Though I believe that the longer your antenna leading to your electrical device (e.g. the actual aerial on your roof plus the loooooong wire from it to your digibox) the more current (or is it voltage...?) can be induced and therefore the more damage potential there is. Long interconnecting wires can also act as an aerial, so at the very least unplug stuff from the rat's nest of cables thus reducing the aerial effect!

The potential problem I think is more about damage to circuits in satellites (with the very serious knock-on effect of having non-working communication satellites) and damage to the US electricity supply - owing to the fact that most of their system and vulnerable transformers are above ground and therefore far more prone to damage than ours which are mostly below ground.

Natch though, just in case, I have a small box acting as a faraday cage in which I keep my emergency electrical items!

[Decaff]

So a metal bread bin would be OK to store my kindle, tablet and other delicate equipment?

[ukpreppergrrl]

So a metal bread bin would be OK to store my kindle, tablet and other delicate equipment?

In theory! Providing the door fits reasonably well. Make sure nothing's touching the metal - put them in jiffy bags or something. The problem is, of course, no-one's actually been able to test things like a metal bread bin against an EMP strike from a nuclear device, so it's pretty much all theory. Personally I am sure it'll be fine to protect from even the strongest CME (but bear in mind I'm not a an electrical engineer, just a metaphorical "bloke down the pub"!).

To check your bread bin Faraday qualities, but your mobile phone inside it, then try to phone your phone. If the phone doesn't ring and you go straight to answerphone, then the mobile can't get any signal from inside the bin, and the bin is working as a Faraday cage. I used to work in a place that had arty metal sheeting covering the entire building (except the windows!). Mobile reception inside the building was non-existent unless you were right by a window. Very big Faraday cage!