15 ms·

The phrasing is "life as we know it", which is much less severe than actual life. Though I imagine hospitals and other medical facilities might encounter serio

The phrasing is "life as we know it", which is much less severe than actual life. Though I imagine hospitals and other medical facilities might encounter serious issues, including inpatient deaths, were such a big solar storm to occur.

codezero 12y ago
I still don't think this is accurate. I say this as someone who used to study solar physics and worked with people on the STEREO team. We've seen lots of powerful solar events strike the Earth and so far, even the ones that have struck in times of modern technology have only caused localized issues, and those localized issues were usually a result of some level of poor design.
- pyre 12y ago
  > Carrington storm of 1859 Isn't this storm supposed to have set telegraph wires on fire? Why would the magnetic field involved here not do the same to our electric grid? Wouldn't most transformers be overloaded / damaged by the additional electricity induced on the grid? Or is this less likely to happen everywhere? It's been a while since I studied electro-magnetism, but IIRC a magnetic field induced a current orthogonal to it's direction. Does this mean that not all transmission lines would be equally affected?
  - codezero 12y ago
    The telegraph network back then had very poor shielding as did other electic components. We've come a long way in 150 years. When there are ice storms in North Carolina where I grew up transformers would explode by the dozen each night but this didn't keep the power off for more than a few days. I doubt a flare would destroy transformers wholesale but even if it did we'd probably not be too bad off for long.
vacri 12y ago
The phrase 'life as we know it' usually means "humanlike intellects made of meat", not 'comfortable Western lifestyle'.
- Karellen 12y ago
  I read it[0] as compared to "life, but not as we know it", meaning alien life, and therefore thought it meant all carbon-based, DNA-powered life of the type found on Earth would be destroyed. (Except for the damn cockroaches, obviously.) [0] Edit: The HN story title has changed, and was originally "A solar storm nearly destroyed life as we know it two years ago"

codezero 12y ago

I still don't think this is accurate. I say this as someone who used to study solar physics and worked with people on the STEREO team. We've seen lots of powerful solar events strike the Earth and so far, even the ones that have struck in times of modern technology have only caused localized issues, and those localized issues were usually a result of some level of poor design.

pyre 12y ago
> Carrington storm of 1859 Isn't this storm supposed to have set telegraph wires on fire? Why would the magnetic field involved here not do the same to our electric grid? Wouldn't most transformers be overloaded / damaged by the additional electricity induced on the grid? Or is this less likely to happen everywhere? It's been a while since I studied electro-magnetism, but IIRC a magnetic field induced a current orthogonal to it's direction. Does this mean that not all transmission lines would be equally affected?
- codezero 12y ago
  The telegraph network back then had very poor shielding as did other electic components. We've come a long way in 150 years. When there are ice storms in North Carolina where I grew up transformers would explode by the dozen each night but this didn't keep the power off for more than a few days. I doubt a flare would destroy transformers wholesale but even if it did we'd probably not be too bad off for long.

vacri 12y ago

The phrase 'life as we know it' usually means "humanlike intellects made of meat", not 'comfortable Western lifestyle'.

Karellen 12y ago
I read it[0] as compared to "life, but not as we know it", meaning alien life, and therefore thought it meant all carbon-based, DNA-powered life of the type found on Earth would be destroyed. (Except for the damn cockroaches, obviously.) [0] Edit: The HN story title has changed, and was originally "A solar storm nearly destroyed life as we know it two years ago"