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"It would fry satellites, overload power grids, destroy all our computers, and possibly put the lights out for most of us for months..." If this happens, I thi

"It would fry satellites, overload power grids, destroy all our computers, and possibly put the lights out for most of us for months..." If this happens, I think losing GPS would be the least of our worries.

sudont 16y ago
Would a faraday cage protect equipment? Obviously the power grid would be down, but combine solar with low-power electronics and it wouldn't be too hard to equip oneself with a running computer after the event.
- roadnottaken 16y ago
  Yeah, as long as you don't run out of tin-foil hats you should be fine.
- stcredzero 16y ago
  What about simply having computers and other machinery powered down? If we situated several probes closer to the sun, they could warn us like a canary in a coal mine. The satellites would simply transmit a heartbeat and status signal along with electromagnetic observations data. When one fo the satellites fails, we'll have a couple of minutes to shut machinery down and get the most sensitive equipment into Faraday cages.
  - sudont 16y ago
    Wasn't sure if the EMP pulse would be picked up regardless of power state due to induction in wiring or casing. If you're right about powering electronics down, a early warning system definitely is a no-brainer.
  - sorbus 16y ago
    Do you have any idea how quickly the corona ejection would travel, and hence how long it would take to hit earth? It would take a bit over 8 minutes for any message from a probe near the sun to reach us, and if the ejection is travelling at (random number) 0.5c, it would only give us a bit over 8 minutes to react and get the word out. Obviously, if it was slower (0.1c), we would have a lot more time. The worst case scenario would be it travelling at >0.9c, giving us under two minutes to react and do everything. It's perhaps a much, much better solution to keep a large (and I mean really fucking large, since it might be all we had to bootstrap ourselves back up to our current level of technology) store of equipment in a large Faraday cage. Probably several, distributed for redundancy, really. This could be combined with probes, of course.

sudont 16y ago

Would a faraday cage protect equipment? Obviously the power grid would be down, but combine solar with low-power electronics and it wouldn't be too hard to equip oneself with a running computer after the event.

roadnottaken 16y ago
Yeah, as long as you don't run out of tin-foil hats you should be fine.
stcredzero 16y ago
What about simply having computers and other machinery powered down? If we situated several probes closer to the sun, they could warn us like a canary in a coal mine. The satellites would simply transmit a heartbeat and status signal along with electromagnetic observations data. When one fo the satellites fails, we'll have a couple of minutes to shut machinery down and get the most sensitive equipment into Faraday cages.
- sudont 16y ago
  Wasn't sure if the EMP pulse would be picked up regardless of power state due to induction in wiring or casing. If you're right about powering electronics down, a early warning system definitely is a no-brainer.
- sorbus 16y ago
  Do you have any idea how quickly the corona ejection would travel, and hence how long it would take to hit earth? It would take a bit over 8 minutes for any message from a probe near the sun to reach us, and if the ejection is travelling at (random number) 0.5c, it would only give us a bit over 8 minutes to react and get the word out. Obviously, if it was slower (0.1c), we would have a lot more time. The worst case scenario would be it travelling at >0.9c, giving us under two minutes to react and do everything. It's perhaps a much, much better solution to keep a large (and I mean really fucking large, since it might be all we had to bootstrap ourselves back up to our current level of technology) store of equipment in a large Faraday cage. Probably several, distributed for redundancy, really. This could be combined with probes, of course.