Solar Shield--Protecting the North American Power Grid

Solar Shield--Protecting the North American Power Grid

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Oct. 26, 2010: Every hundred years or so, a solar storm comes along so potent it fills the skies of Earth with blood-red auroras, makes compass needles point in the wrong direction, and sends electric currents coursing through the planet's topsoil. The most famous such storm, the Carrington Event of 1859, actually shocked telegraph operators and set some of their offices on fire. A 2008 report by the National Academy of Sciences warns that if such a storm occurred today, we could experience widespread power blackouts with permanent damage to many key transformers.

What's a utility operator to do?

The sun rises behind high-voltage power lines in North America. A new NASA project called "Solar Shield" could help keep the lights on.

"Solar Shield is a new and experimental forecasting system for the North American power grid," explains project leader Antti Pulkkinen, a Catholic University of America research associate working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "We believe we can zero in on specific transformers and predict which of them are going to be hit hardest by a space weather event."

science.nasa.gov...

Figured i would bump this up again to see what anyone else thinks. Do you suppose this new system is going to work or is it just another waste of tax payers money?

I thought that we were going to move forward with solar and alternate power systems before the solar maximum in 2013, but seems that was outsourced too.

Also will this actually only be for continuity of Gov and not for the average person sitting at home during the events?

reply to post by antar


Interesting...Ive never heard of it before. Is there anything other info about it? Flagged!

I wonder what has become of this program? Just looking through some older threads and found this, followed some of the links but they only lead me to other dead links for the most part as far as Solar shield is concerned.

With everything we know about 2013 and the solar maximum's possibility if even remote, of a Carrington type event, why would this not be something first and foremost on the agenda?