Solar Flare Protection?

[Kent]

Those of us who are a bit long in the tooth and are interested in alternative modes of transportation, will remember the streamlining pioneer Craig Vetter who advocated, as one of his many rants, to a return to pre-1970's auto technology because they didn't have today's sophisticated electronics which can blow in a Solar Flare.

I don't think Craig is an extremist or a zealot but rather a realist. Our entire society as we know it is based on electronics. One good solar flare could wipe everything ot including our solar systems.

Many of us chose our systems type because of being self contained with the independence that they offer. Others are content to feed the grid, have their meters run backwards, and stay part of their regional electrical system. Yet, are we all vulnerable to power surges caused by the sun?

Besides household type surge protectors which just don't cut it at this scale, does anyone know of any affordable devices that can be incorporated into a home based system to offer protection for our solar circuitry?

This article caught my eye. While written a year ago, it was recently published and it seems that this threat is acquiring greater interest with the increase of solar activity...

'EARTH WILL HAVE 15 MINUTES TO PROTECT ELECTRONICS'
Scientists say there will be short notice of destructive plasma cloud from solar superstorm.
Published: 02/08/2013 at 6:55 PM
F. MICHAEL MALOOF

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/02/earth-wil...7av6fVETUzc.99

WASHINGTON – Scientists around the globe are joining those in the United States in becoming alarmed at the possibility of a plasma cloud from a solar superstorm that could wipe out vast electronics networks, because they say Earth would have only a notice of about 15 minutes.
U.S. space scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrator and the National Aeronautic Space Administration’s Goddard Space Flight Center have been expressing concern over what is fast becoming a “solar storm maximum.”
And the alarms now are going off globally, with expressions of concern from European Union interests, the European Space Agency and Great Britain’s Royal Academy of Engineering, which is urging the British Space Weather Board to help that nation prepare for a massive solar flare.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/02/earth-wil...j6WAbRBdqeL.99

Space weather vs. electric power

Baker, of the University of Colorado’s laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, said the highest risk from such solar storms will be to the national electrical grid system. Baker, who is a co-author of a National Research Council report on the risks from solar storms, said that evidence stemming from space weather research reveals that over the past two solar cycles, space weather has challenged the integrity of electric power.
Power surges from solar particles could blow out huge transformers which take a long time to replace. This would especially be the case if that replacement involved hundreds of giant transformers that were destroyed all at once.
In spite of the historical knowledge of these various storms over the years, NASA said that the nation’s electric power grids remain vulnerable to disruption and damage by severe space weather and have become even more so in terms of both widespread blackouts and permanent equipment damage requiring long periods of time to restore.
The reason is that electric power and more intricate and sophisticated electronics are the cornerstone of a modern society. This technology is the basis on which all other infrastructures and services depend.
“Collateral effects of a longer-term outage would likely include, for example, disruption of the transportation, communication, banking, and finance systems, and government services; the breakdown of the distribution of potable water owing to pump failure; and the loss of perishable foods and medications because of lack of refrigeration,” the NASA report warned. “The resulting loss of services for a significant period of time in even one region of the country could affect the entire nation and have international impacts as well.”

[Mike90250]

FUD.
The solar flare plasma clouds require unshielded wires hundreds of feet long. Most cables under 12" of dirt, or in a grounded metallic conduit will be safe.

Not the same as a man-made EMP, which has extremely sharp rise times, and wires more than a couple inches long, will intercept destructive levels of power for small electronics.

But for now, we have several satellites that monitor solar activity, not just one as reported in that old report that's been drug out again. Plasma clouds travel MUCH slower than the speed of light, and earth has about 2 days of good warning before a crippling event. That 15 minutes quoted, was if there was no satellite warning, except for the sats suddenly failing.

But if we squander the warning that we have, and do not shut down the grid, there will be a "big mess"....

[Kent]

What can a homeowner do on a basic level?

FUD.
The solar flare plasma clouds require unshielded wires hundreds of feet long. Most cables under 12" of dirt, or in a grounded metallic conduit will be safe.

Not the same as a man-made EMP, which has extremely sharp rise times, and wires more than a couple inches long, will intercept destructive levels of power for small electronics.

But for now, we have several satellites that monitor solar activity, not just one as reported in that old report that's been drug out again. Plasma clouds travel MUCH slower than the speed of light, and earth has about 2 days of good warning before a crippling event. That 15 minutes quoted, was if there was no satellite warning, except for the sats suddenly failing.

But if we squander the warning that we have, and do not shut down the grid, there will be a "big mess"....

Sure, thank you. Granted there are more recent reports and further research can disclose the actual time span for notification and the nature of our satellite monitoring system. I posted that article as a FYI to the topic in general.

But the original point is "Besides household type surge protectors which just don't cut it at this scale, does anyone know of any affordable devices that can be incorporated into a home based system to offer protection for our solar circuitry?"

I personally doubt that simply burying a cable will offer full protection for electronic circuitry. But that's why I posted this topic.

[Sunking]

But the original point is "Besides household type surge protectors which just don't cut it at this scale, does anyone know of any affordable devices that can be incorporated into a home based system to offer protection for our solar circuitry?"

Affordable no. What you want is custom Military spec equipment.

As Mike tried to explain you are looking for a solution to a problem that does not exist. Solar Flares requires miles of wire in order to induce a current high enough to burn transformers and electronics up. A home solar system is a micro system with only a few hundred feet of antenna wire so to speak of.

It takes EMP to destroy microsystems like solar which is caused by a nuclear detonation or direct hit from lightning. Common TVSS device (transient voltage surge protectors) can only protect you from nearby lightning strikes and utility induced transients from normal operations. There are EMP arrestors for sale at considerable cost to offer some protection from a direct lightning strike and nuclear detonation, but no guarantees.

[Kent]

It remains a possibility but not worth worrying about

Affordable no. What you want is custom Military spec equipment.

As Mike tried to explain you are looking for a solution to a problem that does not exist. Solar Flares requires miles of wire in order to induce a current high enough to burn transformers and electronics up. A home solar system is a micro system with only a few hundred feet of antenna wire so to speak of.

It takes EMP to destroy microsystems like solar which is caused by a nuclear detonation or direct hit from lightning. Common TVSS device (transient voltage surge protectors) can only protect you from nearby lightning strikes and utility induced transients from normal operations. There are EMP arrestors for sale at considerable cost to offer some protection from a direct lightning strike and nuclear detonation, but no guarantees.

Thanks for putting my mind at ease. I also came across this on the web which helps..

"...however, it is not the flare itself that causes the problem.
There are flares every day on the Sun and they just can't reach us.
Never. Ever.
[Except in a fiction movie, like "Knowing"]

What they can do is trigger a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME).
These also happen quite often. Since they shoot off the Sun in all directions, most of them miss us.

However, every once in a while, we get hit (there were two that hit us in early August 2010).

Some have such a high total energy content that they push back on Earth's magnetosphere, to the breaking point. When that happens, the magnetosphere snaps back into place and our magnetosphere emits an electromagnetic pulse. That pulse can induce currents in very long conductors.

In March 1989, it induced a spike in a power line in the province of Quebec (Canada). The computers controlling the power grid assumed (wrongly) that the spike was caused by a real problem (like the lines falling in water) and cut off the power from that line. The rest of the grid could not cope and there was a cascade failure.

Six million people without power for nine hours. Total number of deaths = 0.

[The real problem was not the flare, not even the CME or even the pulse emitted by our magnetosphere. It was the wrong interpretation by computers]

1989 was a Solar Max. We got hit again in August. This time, it was the particles within the CME that were very energetic (a CME is a cloud of charged particles). They managed to get through the shielding around computer chips and caused computer crashes. Computers controlling a Stock Exchange crashed for a few hours and brokers did not know the minute-by-minute value of their stock.
Total number of deaths = 0.

Modern computers are less shielded than old ones, so this could happen a bit more often. However, most systems are now redundant (if one computer crashes, two more take over). Also, we have more and more computers in space (on satellites) controlling communications and other aspects of society.

They are more vulnerable. However, the same redundancy exists. It is already common practice to shut down some satellites when we know a CME is coming (we get about a week notice, thanks to a pair of probes called STEREO).

So, to answer your question, it is possible that a flare could [indirectly] cause temporary damage or even some permanent damage to some circuits. Who knows? Some people may even have to live without Facebook or Twitter for a whole day... "

---

[russ]

Kent, On a scale of things to worry about of 1 to 100 this comes in about 999.

If you look hard enough on the net you can find some fool that tells a bad story about Bambi I suppose.

[ChrisOlson]

Like others have said, solar flares or CME's are not going to hurt a small micro system. Lightning is a MUCH bigger threat. Our wind turbines have been hit three times in 14 years. Two times it didn't cause any damage to anything that we ever found. The second one, about 7-8 years ago, blew a roughly 30 lb chunk of concrete off corner of the pad that the free-standing tower stands on. However, my theory is that it was not the bolt that did that - it was the shock wave because that one also broke two windows in the house.

[Sunking]

The second one, about 7-8 years ago, blew a roughly 30 lb chunk of concrete off corner of the pad that the free-standing tower stands on. However, my theory is that it was not the bolt that did that - it was the shock wave because that one also broke two windows in the house.

Chris most likely a STEAM EXPLOSION inside the concrete. I have seen it many times.

[SunEagle]

Chris most likely a STEAM EXPLOSION inside the concrete. I have seen it many times.

I have seen those Steam explosions when I worked in Steel Foundries. Surprising how much just a little amount of molten steel will cause the moisture in concrete to expand when it spilled out of the big ladle and hit the floor.

[KenZ71]

Cool, one more thing to worry about.

[ChrisOlson]

Dang - never thought of the possibility of the moisture in the concrete suddenly turning to steam. But that makes sense.

For lightning we got these things from MidNite Solar:



We have two of them on each wind turbine because that's where the lightning seems to be attracted to those 90 foot towers. They are supposed to "clamp" the voltage at several thousand volts during a strike, but it's supposed to be low enough so your electronics will survive it. But we didn't have anything when the lightning hit before. The towers are grounded and I think that's where it went. But I'd worry about lightning at the top of the list - blaster rays from alien space ships, cosmic rays, asteroid impacts and solar flares way down at the bottom of the list of things to worry about.