4 ms·

For one of the worst solar storms of the modern technological era and the worst in 20+ years, I have been pleasantly surprised by the limited number of issues l

by slg 2y ago

For one of the worst solar storms of the modern technological era and the worst in 20+ years, I have been pleasantly surprised by the limited number of issues like this that have actually popped up.

deadbabe 2y ago
Makes me feel like the threat of modern civilization being wiped out by a bad solar storm is overblown.
- cthalupa 2y ago
  We've done a lot to develop protections for these systems after the Quebec incident, and we saw multiple providers, including PJM, actively need to use these protections over the weekend. And this storm was significantly lower in intensity than the Carrington event. Why would you conclude that, because a far weaker storm than one that has occurred in modern history didn't destroy civilization, that the fear of a far stronger storm is overblown? We don't have to guess what the damage would be from that sort of storm - we know why it caused the damage we did, and we can understand the damage it would do to modern infrastructure if not protected against. If we continue to harden the grid against these storms, we might well be able to survive a Carrington (or stronger) level storm, but it will be because we took the proper precautions because we understand how big the risk is.
- fallingsquirrel 2y ago
  Not all solar storms are equally strong. Don't assume that because you're not hurt in a 10mph crash, you also won't be hurt in a 60mph crash.
- hackerlight 2y ago
  That's extrapolating a lot from a low G5 storm. This wasn't a Carrington event. And storms can be worse than a Carrington event, even though that's unlikely.
  - deadbabe 2y ago
    We could also be completely wiped out by a stray gamma ray blast, but it’s unlikely right.
    - somenameforme 2y ago
      One of the leading hypotheses for the Ordovician mass extinction, the second largest ever, was a stray gamma ray burst. Earth regularly goes through mass extinction events and probably will continue to do so until the day all life is extinguished for good once it's encompassed in our dying star. The interesting thing about these mass extinction events is twofold. The first is that they are (1) extremely improbable and (2) will continue to repeatedly happen. And they will never suddenly become more probable. The day before the Ordovician mass extinction kicked off would have very likely been just like any other normal day, even with modern tech. Somebody always wins the lottery sooner or later. The same would also be true even if only one ticket was sold a day. And tickets for the latest drawing have been on sell for about 65 million years.
      - delichon 2y ago
        > One of the leading hypotheses for the Ordovician mass extinction, the second largest ever, was a stray gamma ray burst. Wikipedia currently characterizes it as more of a trailing hypothesis: A minority hypothesis to explain the first burst has been proposed by Philip Ball,[100] Adrian Lewis Melott, and Brian C. Thomas ... Although the gamma-ray burst hypothesis is consistent with some patterns at the onset of extinction, there is no unambiguous evidence that such a nearby gamma-ray burst ever happened. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Ordovician_mass_extinction#Gamma-ray_burst https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Ordovician_mass_extinctio...
    - minitoar 2y ago
      I believe those two events differ in frequency by at least a few orders of magnitude.
      - deadbabe 2y ago
GaggiX 2y ago
Is it already over?
- slg 2y ago
  No, it is expected to last another couple days until Earth is out of sight from the sunspots ejecting this plasma, but the reports I have seen have predicted that we are past the peak.

by slg 2y ago

For one of the worst solar storms of the modern technological era and the worst in 20+ years, I have been pleasantly surprised by the limited number of issues like this that have actually popped up.

deadbabe 2y ago

Makes me feel like the threat of modern civilization being wiped out by a bad solar storm is overblown.

cthalupa 2y ago
We've done a lot to develop protections for these systems after the Quebec incident, and we saw multiple providers, including PJM, actively need to use these protections over the weekend. And this storm was significantly lower in intensity than the Carrington event. Why would you conclude that, because a far weaker storm than one that has occurred in modern history didn't destroy civilization, that the fear of a far stronger storm is overblown? We don't have to guess what the damage would be from that sort of storm - we know why it caused the damage we did, and we can understand the damage it would do to modern infrastructure if not protected against. If we continue to harden the grid against these storms, we might well be able to survive a Carrington (or stronger) level storm, but it will be because we took the proper precautions because we understand how big the risk is.
fallingsquirrel 2y ago
Not all solar storms are equally strong. Don't assume that because you're not hurt in a 10mph crash, you also won't be hurt in a 60mph crash.
hackerlight 2y ago
That's extrapolating a lot from a low G5 storm. This wasn't a Carrington event. And storms can be worse than a Carrington event, even though that's unlikely.
- deadbabe 2y ago
  We could also be completely wiped out by a stray gamma ray blast, but it’s unlikely right.
  - somenameforme 2y ago
    One of the leading hypotheses for the Ordovician mass extinction, the second largest ever, was a stray gamma ray burst. Earth regularly goes through mass extinction events and probably will continue to do so until the day all life is extinguished for good once it's encompassed in our dying star. The interesting thing about these mass extinction events is twofold. The first is that they are (1) extremely improbable and (2) will continue to repeatedly happen. And they will never suddenly become more probable. The day before the Ordovician mass extinction kicked off would have very likely been just like any other normal day, even with modern tech. Somebody always wins the lottery sooner or later. The same would also be true even if only one ticket was sold a day. And tickets for the latest drawing have been on sell for about 65 million years.
    - delichon 2y ago
      > One of the leading hypotheses for the Ordovician mass extinction, the second largest ever, was a stray gamma ray burst. Wikipedia currently characterizes it as more of a trailing hypothesis: A minority hypothesis to explain the first burst has been proposed by Philip Ball,[100] Adrian Lewis Melott, and Brian C. Thomas ... Although the gamma-ray burst hypothesis is consistent with some patterns at the onset of extinction, there is no unambiguous evidence that such a nearby gamma-ray burst ever happened. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Ordovician_mass_extinction#Gamma-ray_burst https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Ordovician_mass_extinctio...
  - minitoar 2y ago
    I believe those two events differ in frequency by at least a few orders of magnitude.
    - deadbabe 2y ago

GaggiX 2y ago

Is it already over?

slg 2y ago
No, it is expected to last another couple days until Earth is out of sight from the sunspots ejecting this plasma, but the reports I have seen have predicted that we are past the peak.