News Article: How a 'Carrington Event' Could Affect the Modern World

RTR91 · Nov 19, 2015

Link to news video

WSFA's weather team did this story last night...

Have you ever heard of Richard Carrington? You aren't alone if you say no. Carrington, a British astronomer, witnessed the biggest solar storm on record, and it's named after him!

The Carrington Event, as it's called, was a large solar burst from the sun that struck Earth in 1859. Auroras were seen as far south as Cuba. It’s said that people could read a newspaper at night by the light of the aurora.

It wasn’t all pretty.

Chief Scientist Dr. James Spann from the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville explains it.

"That was back at the time when we had a lot of telegraph lines and those picked up a lot of energy. So much that some wires burst and even caught on fire in local telegraph offices.”

Telegraph wires catching fire isn’t exactly a 2015 concern. Today’s issues would be much more complicated. And they would all stem from a star millions of miles away.

“The sun’s energy, as it boils, creates a magnetic field, and that gets discharged. And once it travels across that 92 million miles, it strikes earth,” Spann says.

That discharged energy can slam into our atmosphere, causing a meltdown of modern digital technology.

TIDE-HSV · Nov 19, 2015

RTR91 said:
Link to news video

WSFA's weather team did this story last night...

It wouldn't just be the digital, it would cause huge power outages. In 1989, a much smaller flare blacked out Quebec. One the size of Carrington would likely black out much of the world. The power lines which crisscross our nation would pick up the energy just as the telegraph lines did in 1859...

JBama_in_PCOLA · Nov 19, 2015

That's not good what so ever! And we don't have anything to combat this seemingly.

Sent from my iPhone 6+ using Tapatalk

Elefantman · Nov 19, 2015

It would make Katrina look like a small flood in terms of natural disasters.

Bamaro · Nov 19, 2015

Reminds me a little of What Ted Koppel was talking about last night on The Daily Show
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/bterq...-ted-koppel---the-predictions-of--lights-out-
It starts about 2:30 in

DzynKingRTR · Nov 19, 2015

if this happens, how will I know what all my friends had for dinner?

mrusso · Nov 19, 2015

DzynKingRTR said:
if this happens, how will I know what all my friends had for dinner?

Your laptop will still have battery power...duh! Just get on facebook and ask them.

CajunCrimson · Nov 19, 2015

That dang George Bush.....this HAS to be his fault.....they just haven't found the link yet.....but I have faith

Displaced Bama Fan · Nov 20, 2015

DzynKingRTR said:
if this happens, how will I know what all my friends had for dinner?

If this happens, more than likely, you will be the dinner at some point. They may even garnish you with a Georgia peach.

crimsonaudio · Nov 20, 2015

We've talked about this before - it would be akin to a HAEMP detonation. IOW, we'd essentially be back to the mid-1800's almost instantly.

Jon · Nov 20, 2015

CajunCrimson said:
That dang George Bush.....this HAS to be his fault.....they just haven't found the link yet.....but I have faith

well....

A part of Gore's platform was to upgrade the nations power grid for this and some green reasons so in a way.....

Search

News Article: How a 'Carrington Event' Could Affect the Modern World

RTR91

Super Moderator

TIDE-HSV

Senior Administrator

JBama_in_PCOLA

TideFans Legend

Elefantman

Hall of Fame

Bamaro

TideFans Legend

DzynKingRTR

TideFans Legend

mrusso

1st Team

CajunCrimson

Moderator (FB,BB) and Vinyl Enthusiast

Displaced Bama Fan

Hall of Fame

crimsonaudio

Administrator

Jon

Hall of Fame

New Posts

Latest threads

TideFans.shop - NEW Stuff!