3 ms·

One less obvious CME prep suggestion that I have heard is to prepare for extensive forest fires. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18291443/ https://pubmed.ncbi.

• lxgr 2y ago
  Interesting, what's the proposed mechanism for CMEs causing fires? I unfortunately can't access the paper text.
  • tejtm 2y ago
    Current is _generated_ in static lengths of wire. At any point the voltage exceeds the design, it arcs. Current passing through imperfect conductors are heating elements. Both sparks from shorts and excess heating of conductors are possible ignition points. n.b. I have not look at the paper.
    • lxgr 2y ago
      Oh, so you mean it might just be power (or other metal) lines causing fires indirectly? I'd be very surprised if anything naturally occurring in a forest would be long and/or conductive enough to be a problem even during very strong geomagnetic storms.
  • daemonologist 2y ago
    The paper's a bit hard to read but I don't think it suggests a mechanism, or that the correlation between CMEs and forest fires is statistically significant for that matter. If you email me (address in profile) I can send you a copy. It does seem plausible that you could get fires as a result of electrical sparks off of long conductors (transmission and communication wires, pipelines, fences), such as with the Carrington event (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetically_induced_current https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetically_induced_curren...).