Solar Storms - their effects explained

One side say that solar storms will end the world, the other side disagree, and the disinfo shills perpetrate whatever is on the agenda for today.
But what can Solar Storms really do?
Here's an article from back in 99 which clearly states just what they have done in the past and what they can do in the future (the present is irrelevant because it's now the past...). You might be surpirsed at just how much damage these little tinkers can cause.
And, for those of you worrying about even more satellites raining down then at least now you have a reason to:

The list of major satellites incapacitated by adverse space weather is long and costly. Recent examples include an AT&T Telstar 401 satellite that experienced a massive power failure in 1997 only days after a solar storm arrived at Earth. Last May, PanAmSat's Galaxy IV satellite, insured for $165 million, mysteriously lost attitude control and halted service for 45 million pagers in North America. Several new Motorola Iridium satellites suffered attitude control failures about the same time. In 1998, satellite insurance companies paid $1.8 billion in claims, of which half was for satellite failures in orbit.

And what did we do about it? We made 'em cheaper and shabbier...

Many new commercial satellites, however, may be more susceptible to solar storm damage than their less sophisticated predecessors only a decade older because they lack adequate shielding and radiation-hardened circuitry.

And for those of you who continuously preach that solar storms can't harm us on Earth, the truth is indeed much more horrifying than fiction:

In the same way, solar storms produce changing magnetic fields that can induce current flow in power lines and other conductors. Human flesh is a partial electrical conductor. Otherwise, nerves and muscles wouldn't work. But the threat to people comes from what high-energy radiation and particles can do to DNA. High-energy particles such as protons and neutrons can collide with the atoms that make up the DNA molecule, breaking chemical bonds and potentially causing errors to appear in genetic information. Because people are constantly surrounded by radiation from the ground, air and food, some of this damage cannot be avoided.

Here's the article, get stuck in, and please don't try and discredit the source this time - if it's good enough for the Montana Solar Physics department then it's good enough for the average armchair debunker - Solar Storms

With all the rubbish out there, it's a refreshing change to see a well-written article from a reputable source.

It's a shame that, due to their nature, these types of storms don't really seem possible to "prepare" for in the usual sense... maybe that's why the doom proponents don't latch onto it as tightly.

Yes, solar storms (specifically geomagnetic storms) pose a risk to electrical grids because of induced currents. But, as the article you linked shows, the atmosphere protects us on the surface from the associated radiation of CMEs as well as the electromagnetic radiation of solar flares.
The paragraph following the one you posted about radiation being unavoidable:

Outside the bulk of Earth's atmosphere, however, the risk rises dramatically. Astronaut Shannon Lucid reported that, on the Russian Mir space station, the typical radiation dosage was the equivalent of about eight daily chest X-rays. During a solar storm at the end of 1990, Mir cosmonauts received a full year's dosage in a few days.

Major solar flares can deliver from 100 to several thousand rems in a few hours or days for an astronaut inside a spacesuit. That would lead to radiation sickness, and in extreme cases, death. Space station construction workers caught off-guard during even minor flares would be grounded for several years after such an encounter.

solar.physics.montana.edu...

You're quick, I'll grant you that.
But this time you are basing your argument on the hopes that others less versed in semantics (or even just literacy in English) will misread the line you are referring to because you have planted the suggestion that it negates the quoted statement, supporting this by including its position in the following paragraph.
However, and here's the rub... The second statement doesn't negate the first statement and in fact REINFORCES it by stating that the RISK rises dramatically beyond the Earth's atmosphere which, in its very nature, affirms that there was risk HERE to begin with.


Your move, Kasparov...

... for those of you who continuously preach that solar storms can't harm us on Earth, the truth is indeed much more horrifying than fiction...

Here's the thing, many of us here at ATS come here looking for dope on the world's events because we don't trsut what is often term, TPTB, or The Powers That Be. These powers, or authorities as they were, are not limited to big brother types holding down overstuffed leather chairs behind heavy oaken desks in rooms along those marbled halls of the power elite. They also include entities such as the MSM (mainscream media), NASA, military, USDA, CDC. FEMA, DHC, CIA, DIA, NSA, etc.

Well, the media has been fat with NASA stories of how we're all gonna be pan fried by a solar storm in the near future. Our satellites will fail, or computers will sizzle, our telephone wires will spark and we'll all be tossed into a new dark age until such time as AT&T and Verizon and gawd knows who else invests enough capital to replace all that previous investment.

So, while we question everything thrown at us from damned near every authority on this planet... we roll over sometimes, and purr like a kitten for a story that sounds right. Our planet getting fried is one of those and for some reason, most of us don't question it despite the fact the\at Sol, the nearest and dearest star, has been in a slumber of late.

Oh hell, so the sun woke up and is mad at us now? Will we wake one day and call into work by way of can & string to say our car won't start because the electronics turned into french toast? No more internet, electricity, no phone service, no more ATS, no more mainstream or alternative anything.

Wow, that would be convenient, huh?

Seriously. Who needs martial law plans and such when all you really have to do is to throw the switch on all the good stuff to make 300+ million people as deaf as a post and blind as a bat?

Yeah. That could work. What could any of us do besides wade through the long months wishing we knew what was going on around us? Even for those who work, there would be no direct deposits, no digital transactions and no cash because the banks couldn't access their records to hand out your dough.

Sweet. The government saves too because they won't be able to pay out benefits to SS or VA recipients.

Oh... and above all, NO ELECTIONS! Talk about job security!

By the time it all comes back on, we are a far more docile... if not emaciated nation. No riots, no anonymous, no nothing except those same old powers that be who found someplace to go and eat well all that time.

That's how it is... at least for me. If a solar storm comes and wrecks my world, there's not a damned thing I can do to stop it. If those PTB throw the switch, it's the same thing. What I believe matters not a whit so, I choose to exercise my option and nurture my garden cynicism.

The rake is by the fertilizer. Help yourself.

reply to post by Aestheteka

Not semantics. We are protected by the atmosphere.

Solar flares produce high energy particles and radiation that are dangerous to living organisms. However, at the surface of the Earth we are well protected from the effects of solar flares and other solar activity by the Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere. The most dangerous emissions from flares are energetic charged particles (primarily high-energy protons) and electromagnetic radiation (primarily x-rays).

hesperia.gsfc.nasa.gov...

x-rays are absorbed by the atmosphere. That is why x-ray telescopes are located in orbit. Energetic particles are mostly deflected by the magentosphere. Those which make it to the atmosphere lose their energy when they encounter air molecules.

You guys are good. ..
The new topic thing also.