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<blockquote data-quote="Topper" data-source="post: 807713" data-attributes="member: 186250"><p><span style="color: #777777"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia'">Reuters - UK Focus</span></span><span style="color: #777777"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia'"> – 05-08-2012 </span></span></p><p>By Chris Wickham</p><p>LONDON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - <span style="font-family: 'times new roman'"><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-size: 15px">The delicate threads that hold modern life together are dramatically cut by an unexpected threat from outer space, with disastrous effects.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'"><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-size: 15px">It's the stuff of science fiction usually associated with tales of rogue asteroids on a collision course with earth.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'"><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-size: 15px">But over the next two years, as the sun reaches a peak in its 10-year activity cycle, scientists say there is a heightened risk that a whopping solar storm could knock out the power grids, satellites and communications on which we all rely.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'"><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-size: 15px">"Governments are taking it very seriously," says Mike Hapgood, a space weather specialist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (Dusseldorf: LAB.DU - news) in the UK. "These things may be very rare but when they happen, the consequences can be catastrophic."</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'"><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-size: 15px">Hapgood said that solar storms are increasingly being put on the national risk registers used for disaster planning, alongside other rare but devastating events like tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'"><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-size: 15px">The statistics support this, he said. There is a roughly 12 percent chance of a major solar storm every decade, making them a one-in-a-hundred-year event. The last major one was over 150 years ago.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'"><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-size: 15px">SECRETIVE SATELLITE INDUSTRY</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'"><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-size: 15px">The threat comes from the magnetically-charged plasma which the sun belches out in so-called coronal mass ejections. Like vast bubbles bursting off the sun's surface, they send millions of tonnes of gas racing through space that can engulf the earth with as little as one to three days warning.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'"><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-size: 15px">The geomagnetic storms they stoke can induce strong currents in national power grids that literally melt the expensive transformers that form the cornerstones of the system.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'"><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-size: 15px">The failure of a large part of India's fragile power grid this week was not related to geomagnetic storms but it does give a taste of the chaos that can ensue. Trapped miners, stranded trains and hospitals plunged into darkness, and this is a country where up to 40 percent of the population is not connected to the national grid..</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'"><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-size: 15px">Scientists say satellites can also be damaged or destroyed, as charged particles rip through them at hundreds of miles per second. It's an issue the satellite industry is not keen to talk openly about.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'"><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-size: 15px">"A few will still publicly deny that there is a problem," said Hapgood, blaming the fear that being first to admit the problem could put a company at a commercial disadvantage.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'"><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-size: 15px">"We have a way to go before we reach the point where the market accepts that this is a universal problem and gives the advantage to the guys who make a virtue of their ability to deal with space weather."</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'"><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-size: 15px">Radio communications with jetliners can also be knocked out as the solar storm messes with the ionosphere, the region of the earth's upper atmosphere through which long-range radio waves travel.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'"><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-size: 15px">When there is a threat, airlines re-route planes to lower latitudes where they are less exposed. It's not quite routine but it isn't that rare either, and it adds to the fuel bill.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'"><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-size: 15px">CHEER UP, IT MIGHT NEVER HAPPEN</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'"><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-size: 15px"></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'"><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-size: 15px">full story</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'"><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-size: 15px">-</span></span></span>http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/space-weather-coming-storm-093430742.html</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Topper, post: 807713, member: 186250"] [COLOR=#777777][FONT=Georgia]Reuters - UK Focus[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#777777][FONT=Georgia] – 05-08-2012 [/FONT][/COLOR] By Chris Wickham LONDON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - [FONT=times new roman][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=4]The delicate threads that hold modern life together are dramatically cut by an unexpected threat from outer space, with disastrous effects.[/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=times new roman][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=4]It's the stuff of science fiction usually associated with tales of rogue asteroids on a collision course with earth.[/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=times new roman][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=4]But over the next two years, as the sun reaches a peak in its 10-year activity cycle, scientists say there is a heightened risk that a whopping solar storm could knock out the power grids, satellites and communications on which we all rely.[/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=times new roman][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=4]"Governments are taking it very seriously," says Mike Hapgood, a space weather specialist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (Dusseldorf: LAB.DU - news) in the UK. "These things may be very rare but when they happen, the consequences can be catastrophic."[/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=times new roman][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=4]Hapgood said that solar storms are increasingly being put on the national risk registers used for disaster planning, alongside other rare but devastating events like tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.[/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=times new roman][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=4]The statistics support this, he said. There is a roughly 12 percent chance of a major solar storm every decade, making them a one-in-a-hundred-year event. The last major one was over 150 years ago.[/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=times new roman][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=4]SECRETIVE SATELLITE INDUSTRY[/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=times new roman][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=4]The threat comes from the magnetically-charged plasma which the sun belches out in so-called coronal mass ejections. Like vast bubbles bursting off the sun's surface, they send millions of tonnes of gas racing through space that can engulf the earth with as little as one to three days warning.[/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=times new roman][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=4]The geomagnetic storms they stoke can induce strong currents in national power grids that literally melt the expensive transformers that form the cornerstones of the system.[/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=times new roman][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=4]The failure of a large part of India's fragile power grid this week was not related to geomagnetic storms but it does give a taste of the chaos that can ensue. Trapped miners, stranded trains and hospitals plunged into darkness, and this is a country where up to 40 percent of the population is not connected to the national grid..[/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=times new roman][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=4]Scientists say satellites can also be damaged or destroyed, as charged particles rip through them at hundreds of miles per second. It's an issue the satellite industry is not keen to talk openly about.[/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=times new roman][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=4]"A few will still publicly deny that there is a problem," said Hapgood, blaming the fear that being first to admit the problem could put a company at a commercial disadvantage.[/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=times new roman][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=4]"We have a way to go before we reach the point where the market accepts that this is a universal problem and gives the advantage to the guys who make a virtue of their ability to deal with space weather."[/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=times new roman][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=4]Radio communications with jetliners can also be knocked out as the solar storm messes with the ionosphere, the region of the earth's upper atmosphere through which long-range radio waves travel.[/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=times new roman][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=4]When there is a threat, airlines re-route planes to lower latitudes where they are less exposed. It's not quite routine but it isn't that rare either, and it adds to the fuel bill.[/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=times new roman][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=4]CHEER UP, IT MIGHT NEVER HAPPEN full story -[/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT]http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/space-weather-coming-storm-093430742.html [/QUOTE]
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