We've all heard of the Carrington Event in 1859.
I recently saw an article about how in the years 774-775, there had been a
much larger solar storm; the article stated that this showed the risk of
solar storms was higher than we realized.
That may be, but there was something in that article which, I thought, made
that same point much more strongly.
I learned that in 1921, from May 13 to 15, there was a solar storm, weaker
than the Carrington Event, but strong enough to cause telegraph equipment
to start fires. This was called the "New York Railroad Storm" at the time.
I found this alarming, because here was a weaker, and hence more common,
event which also was clearly quite strong enough to fry an awful lot of the
microcomputers out there!

John Savard

On Friday, July 8, 2022 at 8:25:50 AM UTC-7, Quadibloc wrote:
> We've all heard of the Carrington Event in 1859.
> I recently saw an article about how in the years 774-775, there had been a
> much larger solar storm; the article stated that this showed the risk of
> solar storms was higher than we realized.
> That may be, but there was something in that article which, I thought, made
> that same point much more strongly.
> I learned that in 1921, from May 13 to 15, there was a solar storm, weaker
> than the Carrington Event, but strong enough to cause telegraph equipment
> to start fires. This was called the "New York Railroad Storm" at the time.
> I found this alarming, because here was a weaker, and hence more common,
> event which also was clearly quite strong enough to fry an awful lot of the
> microcomputers out there!
>
> John Savard

Can't be worst than the war kUkrainia?

On Friday, July 8, 2022 at 11:25:50 AM UTC-4, Quadibloc wrote:
> We've all heard of the Carrington Event in 1859.
> I recently saw an article about how in the years 774-775, there had been a
> much larger solar storm; the article stated that this showed the risk of
> solar storms was higher than we realized.
> That may be, but there was something in that article which, I thought, made
> that same point much more strongly.
> I learned that in 1921, from May 13 to 15, there was a solar storm, weaker
> than the Carrington Event, but strong enough to cause telegraph equipment
> to start fires. This was called the "New York Railroad Storm" at the time.
> I found this alarming, because here was a weaker, and hence more common,
> event which also was clearly quite strong enough to fry an awful lot of the
> microcomputers out there!
>

It seems that we are about 40 years overdue for such an event.

And it's not just PCs. Vehicles and even refrigerators use more electronics than is prudent.

On Fri, 8 Jul 2022 08:25:49 -0700 (PDT), Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca>
wrote:

>We've all heard of the Carrington Event in 1859.
>I recently saw an article about how in the years 774-775, there had been a
>much larger solar storm; the article stated that this showed the risk of
>solar storms was higher than we realized.
>That may be, but there was something in that article which, I thought, made
>that same point much more strongly.
>I learned that in 1921, from May 13 to 15, there was a solar storm, weaker
>than the Carrington Event, but strong enough to cause telegraph equipment
>to start fires. This was called the "New York Railroad Storm" at the time.
>I found this alarming, because here was a weaker, and hence more common,
>event which also was clearly quite strong enough to fry an awful lot of the
>microcomputers out there!

These events pose little direct risk to electronics. The high voltages
they induce are in long conductors. So things connected to the power
grid that aren't surge protected are problematic. Long communication
wires are problematic. Space-based assets are problematic.

Your PC, your mobile phone, your television... all will be fine. Of
course, much of their support infrastructure may not be.

On Saturday, July 9, 2022 at 6:49:42 AM UTC-6, Chris L Peterson wrote:

> These events pose little direct risk to electronics. The high voltages
> they induce are in long conductors. So things connected to the power
> grid that aren't surge protected are problematic. Long communication
> wires are problematic. Space-based assets are problematic.
>
> Your PC, your mobile phone, your television... all will be fine. Of
> course, much of their support infrastructure may not be.

This assumes I have enough warning that my PC *isn't plugged in* when
it happens.

Also, while this may be true of small events, like those which caused
power outages in recent decades, the Carrington Event _and_ the one
in 1921 caused problems even with telegraph equipment that wasn't
connected to long telegraph wires - so the traces on the motherboard
may be enough to fry microscopic transistors in a _major_ event.

John Savard

On Sun, 10 Jul 2022 10:01:47 -0700 (PDT), Quadibloc
<jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> wrote:

>On Saturday, July 9, 2022 at 6:49:42 AM UTC-6, Chris L Peterson wrote:
>
>> These events pose little direct risk to electronics. The high voltages
>> they induce are in long conductors. So things connected to the power
>> grid that aren't surge protected are problematic. Long communication
>> wires are problematic. Space-based assets are problematic.
>>
>> Your PC, your mobile phone, your television... all will be fine. Of
>> course, much of their support infrastructure may not be.
>
>This assumes I have enough warning that my PC *isn't plugged in* when
>it happens.

If you're using a quality surge suppressor, no solar flare is going to
induce a high enough voltage on your mains to damage a computer.

>Also, while this may be true of small events, like those which caused
>power outages in recent decades, the Carrington Event _and_ the one
>in 1921 caused problems even with telegraph equipment that wasn't
>connected to long telegraph wires - so the traces on the motherboard
>may be enough to fry microscopic transistors in a _major_ event.

They are not. By several orders of magnitude. Nothing was damaged that
wasn't connected to long wires. Claims to the contrary are
unsupportable (and unsupported).

On 10/07/2022 18:01, Quadibloc wrote:
> On Saturday, July 9, 2022 at 6:49:42 AM UTC-6, Chris L Peterson wrote:
>
>> These events pose little direct risk to electronics. The high voltages
>> they induce are in long conductors. So things connected to the power
>> grid that aren't surge protected are problematic. Long communication
>> wires are problematic. Space-based assets are problematic.
>>
>> Your PC, your mobile phone, your television... all will be fine. Of
>> course, much of their support infrastructure may not be.
>
> This assumes I have enough warning that my PC *isn't plugged in* when
> it happens.

Any basic surge suppression will cope with it.

Worst case the mains will arc at the surge arresters which provide a
ground path for lightning strikes to mains cables.
>
> Also, while this may be true of small events, like those which caused
> power outages in recent decades, the Carrington Event _and_ the one
> in 1921 caused problems even with telegraph equipment that wasn't
> connected to long telegraph wires - so the traces on the motherboard
> may be enough to fry microscopic transistors in a _major_ event.

It is long wire at high latitudes that will suffer. The big snag is that
capacity to rebuild big mains distribution transformers is rather
limited so places could be without power for long periods of time.

UK institute of Electronic Engineers did a good risk assessment on it a
few years back summery version and more detailed engineers copy:

https://raeng.org.uk/media/2iclimo5/space_weather_summary_report.pdf

https://raeng.org.uk/media/lz2fs5ql/space_weather_full_report_final.pdf

--
Regards,
Martin Brown