(Newswire.net — December 15, 2014) — Up to 100 million Americans could lose electrical power in the event of a magnetic space storm, a study by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claims.
DHS’ Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), just-released a study showing that it is impossible to determine the damage that would be caused if a solar storm were to knock out the electric grid and cause other infrastructure to fail.
A solar storm refers to a Solar flare, which represents a large explosion in the sun’s atmosphere that sends magnetic pulses toward Earth (solar wind). Solar flares often hit the Earth’s atmosphere, however, they usually do not penetrate the planet’s magnetic field but instead disperse upon impact. The scientists say it is quite possible though, that a large enough explosion on the surface of the sun may cause enough electro-magnetic radiation that it could penetrate the Earth’s shield and hit the Earth as a super electro-magnetic (EM) bomb, which would knock down the electric power grid, and could ‘fry’ every electronic device.
We can all cross our fingers and hope it willnever happen, however, FEMA’s job is to advise governments on what would be the consequences if a strong enough solar flare ever occurs. The report states that satellites would first detect a “coronal mass ejection” from the sun and would reach the earth in 24-72 hours and affect up to 100 million people.
Named G-5, the largest solar storms would disrupt power grid operations, GPS satellites, aircraft, manned space flights, satellite operations, communications cables and gas distribution pipelines, according to the report.
The report predicts that within 36 hours of the storm passing, 65 million people would have electric power again, and after two weeks another 25 million would be reconnected, but for the remaining ten million people in six states, it would take two months to restore power to them, although it doesn’t say why.
“It occurs rarely, can’t be predicted, full protection is impossibly expensive and the potential impact ranges from inconvenient to cataclysmic,” said Mark Sauter, co-author of the book Homeland Security: A Complete Guide, who managed to get hold of the report under the Freedom of Information Act.
He noted that more than 200 pages from the FEMA report were blacked out.
There were two major solar storms in 1859 and 1921, but electricity was much less prevalent then than it is today so, their effect was far more limited. It is impossible to predict how much a major solar flare would affect todays electrical infrastructure, the report says.