Sunday, May 6, 2012

Is Space Weather A National Security Threat?

A massive explosion on the sun's surface has triggered the largest solar radiation storm since 2005, hurling charged particles at Earth. (NASA / May 4, 2012)

Space Weather Expert Has Ominous Forecast -- L.A. Times

Mike Hapgood, who studies solar events, says the world isn't prepared for a truly damaging storm. And one could happen soon.

A stream of highly charged particles from the sun is headed straight toward Earth, threatening to plunge cities around the world into darkness and bring the global economy screeching to a halt.

This isn't the premise of the latest doomsday thriller. Massive solar storms have happened before — and another one is likely to occur soon, according to Mike Hapgood, a space weather scientist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford, England.

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My Comment: A giant space storm that knocks-off the world's electrical and communications grid system will be a disaster .... but not a catastrophic one. We will survive .... but trust me .... it is not going to be easy. I should know .... I lived through the Ice Storm of 1998 in Montreal .... an ice storm that knocked-off the electrical grid for a week in my part of Montreal, and longer in the south of Montreal (some regions had no power for a month) .... and before I forget .... this all happened in the middle winter when temperatures outside can easily reach (and did) -20C. We (of course) all survived .... but it was a difficult time, and what bothered me most was the lack of news and information.

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