NASA: Dangerous sunspot aligning with Earth

This could be really bad! I can't get the NASA link to work

A direct hit on Earth from an X-class flare could cause major disruptions, or even destruction, to the U.S. electrical grid, which already is very vulnerable, as well as to life-sustaining critical infrastructures dependent on the grid to function.

NASA said the warning regarding the sunspot, AR 2151, could last for weeks.

www.wnd.com...

a reply to: nighthawk1954

Thanks for the heads up. C2C and George have been pushing to try to get the grid hardened but ... one of the guys he was talking to said the USA grid was so old it would require a major rework and investment which he did not see happening anytime soon. If not an X flare now, because we are lucky, then you have to wonder when the luck will run out ?

we got hit in April and June this year. Mostly radio disruptions but we sure could use a better grid.

a reply to: 727Sky
That's like our Metro North train line here in CT. to NYC, some of the electrical line are over 100 years old.

a reply to: nighthawk1954

Something is not right. Usually we post the doom porn and NASA debunks us.

originally posted by: nighthawk1954
This could be really bad! I can't get the NASA link to work

A direct hit on Earth from an X-class flare could cause major disruptions, or even destruction, to the U.S. electrical grid, which already is very vulnerable, as well as to life-sustaining critical infrastructures dependent on the grid to function.

NASA said the warning regarding the sunspot, AR 2151, could last for weeks.

www.wnd.com...

Here is the NASA link

Im afraid they don't hold the same doom and gloom your source article tried to convey though...

The sun kicked off this week with an explosive solar flare that, while not aimed directly at Earth, may be a hotspot to watch over the next few days. ...

Sunday's flare was an intense M5.6 solar eruption on the scale used by scientists to measure space weather events. M-class storms are about 10 times weaker than X-class flares, the most powerful storms on the sun, NASA spokeswoman Karen Fox wrote in a statement.

When aimed at Earth, M-class solar flares can amplify the planet's northern lights displays, causing amazing aurora views for observers at high latitudes.

I was under the impression our electrical grid was original. This puts external aid into a whole new perspective.

We certainly need to help ourselves first for once.

Well, somebody just took doom porn to the next level didn't they?

Geez... But we all know that it's going to happen one day. Maybe not this time or the next 50, but we can't possibly escape it forever. I don't understand why we have not been working on improving our grid since the last time it was blown to hell (Carrington?). We just keep borrowing time.

Our time will run out eventually. We would be wise to start acting and quit borrowing.

a reply to: boncho
Thank God! Thank you for posting! I started to go through my supplies in the basement, just in case.

Well folks.

Learn to hunt.

Buy some hunting rifles, or decent bow with an assortment of arrows.

originally posted by: projectvxn
Well folks.

Learn to hunt.

Buy some hunting rifles, or decent bow with an assortment of arrows.

With so many people hunting the game supply would be severely depleted in a matter of weeks.

a reply to: nighthawk1954

It dosent look like NASA have put out any warnings on this one, only AR 2149.

www.swpc.noaa.gov...

NOAA estimates only a 5% chance of an X-flare. Not impossible I suppose, but only 5% chance of an X-flare and then some percent chance that that x-flare messes up important equipment.

Source: spaceweather.com...

a reply to: netwarrior

If by game you mean the millions and millions who would run the stores dry then yes.

There is a VERY small population of people in the US who know anything about hunting.

Then there is field dressing, butchering, and preserving the meat, a skill all on its own.

In a situation like that most people would utterly starve.

A modern day Carrington Event is a real threat and yes we should be doing something about hardening our electrical grid. It's like the localities that have required earthquake resistant architecture, often decades before a quake hits. Who knows when it will happen, but since we know it will happen some day, it makes sense to get on the path of preparedness.

However...

In this case we should consider the source, Joseph Farah, a well known wing-nut known for spewing nonsense. Entertaining nonsense, yes, but not someone that we should be betting our lives or livelihoods on. Just a few clicks around that WND site will yield all kinds of silliness, like this:

There are also countless contemporary sightings of what appear to be pterodactyls in Asia and Africa.

You know what I think? I think we’ve been sold a bill of goods about the dinosaurs. I don’t believe they died off millions and millions of years ago. In fact, I’m not at all convinced they’ve died off completely.

Quote

originally posted by: netwarrior

originally posted by: projectvxn
Well folks.

Learn to hunt.

Buy some hunting rifles, or decent bow with an assortment of arrows.

With so many people hunting the game supply would be severely depleted in a matter of weeks.

No prob. Then you start shooting at those shooting at you. That's the way it will be if things get really bad for one reason or another. It's a miserable fact of survival (life and death).

I'm confused. The initial link says NASA is warning Washington. Solar news says nothing about it. Somewhere I just read we are in our 11 year solar cycle. I read we were in our 11 year cycle a few years ago. Does that cycle end? Or does it go on until the next 11 years as determined by us. I am sincerely not understanding how we determine where this 11 years starts and ends. And is there a warning or not?

originally posted by: 727Sky
a reply to: nighthawk1954

Thanks for the heads up. C2C and George have been pushing to try to get the grid hardened but ... one of the guys he was talking to said the USA grid was so old it would require a major rework and investment which he did not see happening anytime soon. If not an X flare now, because we are lucky, then you have to wonder when the luck will run out ?

It happened in 1989 - the North American grid went down because of a solar flare. In the UK, we experienced the effects first hand. We were able to receive Norwegian FM radio stations in the NE of Scotland. In the night time around 1am, there were green sheets of light shooting over the sky, and there was a greeninsh-reddish + shape directly opposite where the Sun was.

Can someone easily verify this portion:

NASA and the National Science Foundation has estimated that if the U.S. sustained a direct hit from an X-class flare, it would cost the nation upward of $2 trillion in the first year and kill up to 90 percent of the U.S. population due to the lack of services, starvation and disease.

Has NASA and NSF really published those assessments before?

Holy crap!