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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Orbital decay and 2,000 satellites dropping out of the sky. Shorted-out power grids and multi-state blackouts. Limited or no cell phone availability. Grounded polar flights. Potential economic devastation.
Hard sci-fi doomsday fodder? Unfortunately not, according to solar physics experts at Purdue University and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The solar activity “we’re really worried about,” according to Lister, is a massive coronal ejection event. It’s a literal once-in-a-century solar super storm. In a coronal ejection event, the sun erupts massive qualities of super-heated plasma and material from its surface at speeds approaching 100 million kilometers per hour. According to ice-core analysis from Antarctica, the estimated total solar mass from the 1859 event was roughly equivalent to the surface land of North America spread out over the entire solar system. Biesecker added: “The coronal event is massive when compared to the size of the planet.”
The report states: “The consequences of a future 1859-caliber super storm event – were it to occur near the peak of the next sunspot cycle – are quite extensive and involve a range of human and technology impacts not unlike a major Force 5 hurricane or tsunami. There will be dramatic increases in UV radiation, effecting life on the Earth’s surface”.
Originally posted by vecarenx
...we really need to preserve knowledge on the ground where it will count... not seed in MT friggin Olympus