Geomagnetic storms – links, pictures & potential black out maps

Cydonia

Enlightened
Joined
Dec 8, 2006
Messages
958
Location
Vancouver BC
A public workshop was held from May 22-23 2008 in Washington, D.C., under the National Research Council's (NRC's) Space Studies Board.
The 144 pages of findings can be found here. (It's even in book form to buy here.) Anyway I went through all of it and found much interesting stuff.
Use these links to skip to (I think) the interesting sections. If there were a storm like the 1859 one next week we'd all be toast... in a big way.

It is very worth reading for a variety of reasons. It describes The Great Magnetic Storms of August-September 1859 (the Carrington Event) with some fascinating details that I had never heard before.


  • The 1859 geomagnetic Superstorm - skip to page 7 of report.
  • The 1859 geomagnetic Superstorm - skip to page 100 of report.
  • The Great Magnetic Storms of August - September 1859 - Wikipedia entry.

"The experience from contemporary space weather events is revealing and potentially paints an ominous outcome
for historically large storms that are yet to occur on today's infrastructure…"



  • Space weather and power grids - skip to page 17.
  • Space weather, infrastructure and society - skip to page 29.
  • Power grids - Future Vulnerability - skip to page 76.
  • Vulnerability of US electric power grid - skip to page 105.

"Electric power grids, a national critical infrastructure, continue to become more vulnerable to disruption from geomagnetic storms." And "many of the things that we have done to increase operational efficiency and haul power long distances have inadvertently and unknowingly escalated the risks from geomagnetic storms." And
Kappenman noted that, at the same time, no design codes have been adopted to reduce geomagnetically induced current (GIC) flows in the power grid during a storm.

A useful 10 page .PDF document (813kb) that features theoretical maps of potential "Probable Areas of Power System Collapse" in the event of a massive Geomagnetic storm: The Vulnerability of the US Electric Power Grid to Severe Space Weather Events and Future Outlook.
A small picture of "regions outlined are susceptible to system collapse" can be seen here. (page 78 of the 144 page report mentioned above)

Space Weather: What is it? How will it effect you? A 33 page 10mb Power Point Presentation here. (Includes picture of damage to transformer from the March 13 1989 storm on page 21. (Or skip the download and a see smaller picture here on page 54 of the report.)

How do excess currents induced in the transmission lines by a Geomagnetic storm damage a transformer? A basic rundown of what happens at the bottom of this page.
 

PhantomPhoton

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 15, 2007
Messages
3,116
Location
NV
Very interesting, thanks for the link to the hole .pdf
I have some reading to do.
 
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