1 in 8 Chance of Catastrophic Solar Megastorm by 2020

Not trying to fear monger here, just posting an interesting article:

The Earth has a roughly 12 percent chance of experiencing an enormous megaflare erupting from the sun in the next decade. This event could potentially cause trillions of dollars’ worth of damage and take up to a decade to recover from.

Such an extreme event is considered to be relatively rare. The last gigantic solar storm, known as the Carrington Event, occurred more than 150 years ago and was the most powerful such event in recorded history.

That a rival to this event might have a greater than 10 percent chance of happening in the next 10 years was surprising to space physicist Pete Riley, senior scientist at Predictive Science in San Diego, California, who published the estimate in Space Weather on Feb. 23.

“Even if it’s off by a factor of two, that’s a much larger number than I thought,” he said.

The article talks about the Carrington Event, the biggest solar event ever seen, which occurred on Sept. 1, 1859, making the point that "In today’s electrically dependent modern world" potential collateral damage could be in the trillions and take 4-10 years for recovery. This is worst case scenario, of course.

Anyway, thought it was interesting, especially that the space physicist was surprised by the 12% chance.

Source Article

The doomsday mouth breathers don't care for solar flares anymore . Sky sounds are the big new thing at the moment.

Originally posted by Atzil321
The doomsday mouth breathers don't care for solar flares anymore

. Sky sounds are the big new thing at the moment.

Right? Maybe if I didn't point out "non fear mongering" it would be more of an ATS hit :-)

the last couple of rounds of solar flares made some of the radio stations static-y for a day or two. i suppose a big HUGE one it could really wipe out cell service for a day or two. i don't know if i believe it will be catastrophic. we'll all be gone by december anyway right?