• Question: What is the worst case scenario for these solar flares the sun is predicted to have in 2013?

    Asked by silicadioxide to Hermine, Katy, Laura, Nathalie, Paula on 22 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Paula Salgado

      Paula Salgado answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Hi Silicadioxide

      Thanks for pointing me to this! I had heard something about it, but didn’t know any details so I tried to find out to answer your question and I’ve just learned a lot! 😉

      Basically, NASA scientists believe the Sun’s 11-year cycle will peak in 2011 and there will strong solar flares. These would have the potential to disrupt national power grids (that could overheat) and air travel severely disrupted while electronic items, navigation devices and major satellites could stop working. A similar thing happened in 1859. Since we are much more dependent on electric communication and energ, the effects could be much worse.

      It’s important to know it’s likely to happen, analyse the risks and take action to prevent major damage. So NASA and other scientists and governments are trying to prepare for this: satellites can be sent offline during big flares, power grids and communication networks can be shielded against electromagnetic radiation and so on.

      I think if we prepare properly and all measures are in place, we’ll be ok. The important thing is not ignore the warnings from scientists and be prepared! 😉

    • Photo: Nathalie Pettorelli

      Nathalie Pettorelli answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Hi silicadioxide,

      If you have a look at the New Scientist from the 12 June 2010, there is a whole article about the sun, its cycle, and the abundance of sun flares and sun spots – I highly recommend it, it’s a fascinating and well written article. Loads of sun flares correlates with lots of sun spots, and currently the trend is low abundance of sun spots – which is assumed to affect our climate (a recent paper just linked the latest frigid european winter of 2009/2010 with low solar activity (i.e., low numbers of sun spots)). Hope that answers your question – if not, let me know, I have the article here and I’d be happy to discuss it more if needed 😉

    • Photo: Katy Mee

      Katy Mee answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Hmmmm, not my area of expertise at all, but maybe this artile will help:

      http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tomchivers/100008500/nasas-2013-solar-flare-warning-how-much-do-we-need-to-worry/

    • Photo: Laura Dixon

      Laura Dixon answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Solar flares will hit the earth with lots of magnetic energy so this has the potential disrupt everything from emergency services’ systems, hospital equipment, banking systems and air traffic control devices, through to “everyday” items such as home computers, iPods and Sat Navs and electricity outages. Hopefully, we have enough time to prepare to minimize the damage!

    • Photo: Hermine Schnetler

      Hermine Schnetler answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      Well I suppose the real worste that could happen is in the film 2012, just add another year to the title, but personally I don’t think too much will come from it. We will analyse what is expected, climate change and any affects to electronics and take the proper precautions to protect us from this and we should be ok. Just be ready 😉

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