Guys - I have never been much into "prepping". I never had much of a sense of urgency, until reading about the Carrington Effect, a huge solar flare. This event occurred in 1859. We also had a similar but much smaller scale event occur in 1989.
Simply put, it's a geomagnetic storm caused by the sun emitting a large solar coronal mass ejection that ends up charging the atmosphere all around the earth. This could zap all unprotected electronics and bring down power grids. The damage to the power grids could be so extensive as to take years to fully recover from (e.g. the much smaller 1989 event overloaded and blew out transformers and caused an enormous amount of damage). How extensive the damage to infrastructure would depend on the ability of government to see the warning (as there would be massive sunspot activity prior) and shut the power grids down. I have little confidence in the various governments here in the Americas (North or South) to do that very well. However, looks like North America would be hardest hit.
Even your red dot optics might be be zapped, although how extensive the damage to electronics seems to be an open question. Yet another reason to learn how to use iron sights. Another good question; what's the minimum time the power grid has to be shut even if we did act immediately? A week? Might be a good idea to have some food and water handy. Shield your important electronics. Maybe we should start a forum about this
This is a nice explanation below. We can count on Biden and his collection of sage experts to to put measures in place in the upcoming infrastructure bill, right? You be the judge.
Simply put, it's a geomagnetic storm caused by the sun emitting a large solar coronal mass ejection that ends up charging the atmosphere all around the earth. This could zap all unprotected electronics and bring down power grids. The damage to the power grids could be so extensive as to take years to fully recover from (e.g. the much smaller 1989 event overloaded and blew out transformers and caused an enormous amount of damage). How extensive the damage to infrastructure would depend on the ability of government to see the warning (as there would be massive sunspot activity prior) and shut the power grids down. I have little confidence in the various governments here in the Americas (North or South) to do that very well. However, looks like North America would be hardest hit.
Even your red dot optics might be be zapped, although how extensive the damage to electronics seems to be an open question. Yet another reason to learn how to use iron sights. Another good question; what's the minimum time the power grid has to be shut even if we did act immediately? A week? Might be a good idea to have some food and water handy. Shield your important electronics. Maybe we should start a forum about this
This is a nice explanation below. We can count on Biden and his collection of sage experts to to put measures in place in the upcoming infrastructure bill, right? You be the judge.