What would happen if this happened today?

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...tm?list1045353

October 23, 2003: Newly uncovered scientific data of recorded history's most massive space storm is helping a NASA scientist investigate its intensity and the probability that what occurred on Earth and in the heavens almost a century-and-a-half ago could happen again.

Right: An ultraviolet-wavelength picture of the sun taken by the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) on Oct. 23, 2003.

In scientific circles where solar flares, magnetic storms and other unique solar events are discussed, the occurrences of September 1-2, 1859, are the star stuff of legend. Even 144 years ago, many of Earth's inhabitants realized something momentous had just occurred. Within hours, telegraph wires in both the United States and Europe spontaneously shorted out, causing numerous fires, while the Northern Lights, solar-induced phenomena more closely associated with regions near Earth's North Pole, were documented as far south as Rome, Havana and Hawaii, with similar effects at the South Pole.

What happened in 1859 was a combination of several events that occurred on the Sun at the same time. If they took place separately they would be somewhat notable events. But together they caused the most potent disruption of Earth's ionosphere in recorded history. "What they generated was the perfect space storm," says Bruce Tsurutani, a plasma physicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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Incredibly fascinating. A small version just happened a couple of days ago, but I failed to check my email in time to catch it.

What is going to happen if something this severe happened again? Look how dependent we are on technology that is easily affected by the magnetically charged plasma of a CME.

Amazing stuff, but scary at the same time.

Your thoughts?

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In general, engineers and scientists are well-aware of coronal mass ejections and solar flares-- most potentially vulnerable systems have either been shielded, or designed in a way that allows them to be 'turned off' during such space storms. While I'm not precluding the possibility of some sort of disruption in the event of these storms, I would bet good money that we will not experience some sort of global crisis due to this sort of phenomena.

~AA

I found that to be incredibly interesting. Is there a general name for it?

Suppose it did happen and we were not prepared. We would be encountering problems as severe as complete loss of aviation systems and electrically based transportation systems (i.e.: bullet train, or perhaps future electric cars). Such things would be incredibly dangerous, and I bet it would wipe out nearly half of the popualtion of technologically dependant countries.

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Woah there, calm down a bit :rolleyes: I don't even think we'd get into the 1-2% range with a trauma like that. Even if every plane and train currently 'on the move' in the country somehow exploded and killed 100% of their passangers, and every single electric-requiring person (hospital with life support, etc), I don't think we'd even break the 400,000 mark. Of course, it would be a huge disaster-- tens or hundreds of thousands of people might die. (That is assuming a total and cataclysmic failure of multiple critical systems.) I think you're vastly underestimating the ability of people to survive without electricity for a short period of time.

~AA

Well, that was assuming that we will continue to become more technologically dependant than we are now. I mentioned electric cars, which aren't that far from becoming our common ride. If some kind of disturbance occured in their system, the roads would instantly become a massive network of death. If it happened at the right time of day, I think that, yes, nearly half of us Americans would die. (I'm saying the deaths would occur instantly and not so much over a period of time.)

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Ya know, it would be kinda weird to see a spectrum of high deaths to low deaths in our different time zones. I mean, in the timezone where it is like 12:15PM, there would be significantly more deaths than an adjacent time zone.

PS- Yeah, half the population is a little over the top. Forget what I said.

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This is kind of like Dennis Miller's comment about global warming, citing the recent study that the worst case scenario is an average increase of 1 to 2 degrees over the next hundred years. His comment was something like "I can't believe their is so much angst over our great grandchildren possibly not needing a sweater one morning."

I tend to agree that once we learn the actual possible impact of some of these worries, we might not be so apt to spend vast resources and energy on them that could be better used elsewhere.