2mo ago

The U.S. Just Ran a Solar Storm Emergency Drill. The Real Deal Would Be a Catastrophe

"The exercise was held from May 8 to 9, 2024, at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, and at a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) site in Denver, Colorado."

Article refers to a PDF of the report it's based on:

https://www.jhuapl.edu/sites/default/files/2025-04/Space-Weather-TTX-Report-Summary-v3-FINAL.pdf

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Note: "Would Be a Catastrophe" even back when the agencies involved in mitigating the disaster still existed.
- Oy. I really don't want to see what happens when we're faced with an actual challenge. This is... yikes.
  
  I would get a case of beer and go to the library and read until the internet was back on. You can't stop my escapism that easily.
  
  It's all right, Trump will redirect the solar flare by drawing a new line on a chart. Plasma is very accommodating as everybody is well aware.
  
  We could party like it's 1899!
  Or instead go bonkers as society devolves:
  The Carrington Event
I'm glad this threat is at least starting to be taken seriously. As an amateur radio operator, I got incredibly interested in how the weather on the sun affects radio propagation and power management here on Earth.
Better a CME than an EMP just simply because there is at least some time to prepare for a massive CME. Whereas an EMP has absolutely no warning whatsoever.
In the event of a massive CME off-grid homes and buildings are likely to fare much better because they are not connected to the power grid. The problem comes with long transmission lines where incredibly large charge differentials can build up over distance. shorter wires can't build up nearly the same amount of charge differential.
Edit: I feel it's important to mention that grid tie systems are going to be just as vulnerable as on grid because you still have the grid actually physically connected to the building.
- It's worth noting that even though a building might have solar, the systems usually disable themselves in the event of a blackout to prevent back feeding into the grid.
  
  That's known as a grid tie system and my edit mentions that. The only way it's going to help is if the grid is physically disconnected from the building as in the wire is not connected to the building at any point.
  
  That wouldn't be an off grid building then.
- As an amateur radio operator, The high bands get wiped first! 80, 160, not so much (no ionosphere? ground wave still works. Easy to throw up a long wire ... afterward). Hams (esp. ARES) will become VERY IMPORTANT for a LONG time when it happens. Field Day is a good way to prep for aftermath. (Gear can go into metal containers to escape parts damage until afterward.) Portable generators (best without a lot of electronics on them) will be needed to re-charge the batteries!
You know those stories where the world is reduced to a post-apocalypse after a natural event? What if that's only what happens in the US, and the rest of the world recovers with ease due to extant rescue services?
- If it wasn’t for the stupid Darrel Dixon show, my head canon of the walking dead only affecting America would still stand.
  They literally just walk, and it would be pretty obvious that everyone is infected after the first year or so of people dying from the flu and shit. Any country with competent leadership could have squashed the zombies in a couple months.
  
  After experiencing the covid-19 outbreak I am now fully convinced that a zombie apocalypse is feasible, there would be people denying the existence of the zombie virus, just going to the infected an getting bitten because they wanted a pizza or something, that and people just drenching themselves in bleach or something because they heard that keep the zombies away from some dude online. Stuff like that.
  
  Isn't that the case in the 28 X later series? Like England fell to a zombie apocalypse but the rest of the world is doing fine?
  
  Any country with competent leadership could have squashed the zombies in a couple months.
  True but you underestimate people stupidity.
  
  I’ve always thought that if I’m in a zombie apocalypse im just gonna carry super soakers filled with hydrogen peroxide
- ...and simply agrees to never, ever, set foot in North America.
  I'm in.
  Not sure, though, how this ploy would work out for our fine fellows in South America, Mexico, and Canada, the ones currently belabored with being the closest neighbours to The Wastelands.
  
  Not sure, though, how this ploy would work out for our fine fellows in South America and Canada, the ones currently belabored with being the closest neighbours...
  Fuck Mexico, I guess.
  
  Just uhhh... Build a wall, I guess?
- Oooh, so that's why apocalyptic movies are almost always only US oriented
- There are A LOT of BIG countries with big electric grids in the world today. Which countries GRIDS get hit the worst depends on which side of the Earth is facing the 'hit'. Could the West (US, Brazil) or Europe or the East (China, India).
  
  It is a little more complex than that. You cannot only consider how big is a country or how big is its grid.
  If the Europe would be hit by a solar storm, assuming that not all of it was hit we can recover the grid in about a month and the blackout would not be longer than maybe a week.
  But a solar storm would destroy also everything else, so how big is the grid is really irrelevant when you basically have every other piece (excluded the few hardened enough) destroyed.
lol we couldn't even prepare for fascist takeover of the country. why tf would anyone think we'd be prepared for a solar firestorm
- Invest in metal stoves and big tents today!
I'm not a doomsday prepper, but stuff like this makes me want to sequester some gear...
- I have an old safe where i keep some old tech and power banks - just junk really but the Faraday is enough for any solar flare and i think it looks cool. Not sure what good that would do if all cell towers and satellites are fried though. Even fiber is unlikely to operate as I imagine most switches are not secured.
  Last time I did research on this I came out entirely unconvinced of value of prepping here. Just the usual water, gas stove and bags of rice is really best bet and invest everything else back to local communities because economies of scale kicks ass.
  
  Do you replace the power banks to keep them charged to 70%? Maybe also add some ham radios and walkie talkies to the stash.
  
  During the recent Iberian Peninsula Blackout, which in practice meant a whole day without power and most of it without water, thanks to a past phase of mine as a bit of a prepper I:
  Had a windup radio which I used to keep up with what was going on and some entertainment. It also works as a flashlight, so covered that side also.
  Quickly concluded that the water supply of the city I live in was likely to get compromised because the pumps are powered from mains so the first thing I did when I got home was fill a bunch of containers with water, most of which I ended up using. Also I already had 10L of drinking water stored just in case.
  Had some freeze dried food so wasn't worried about running out of food (though 1 day is nowehere near enough to empty normal food reserves if you keep a few cans of food around, so I never got close to having to use it).
  My habbit of having some cash with me meant I could buy a bit of extra food from a local grocer which was open at the start of the blackout. If you pay everything electronically, you're not only screwed in situation were mains power goes down but you're even vulnerable to the consequences of banks having problems with their systems (which happens once in a while)
  Anyway, my point is not to go full prepper, my point is that some elements of that minset and practices will cover the far more common kind of problems - which happen maybe once every few years - that leave you without power and water for a few days.
  One thing I did find out is that I probably need something like a solar powered powerbank for loading my tablet since that's how I mostly read books nowadays (didn't actually need one in this blackout as it was of just a day and as it was offline the charge was more than enough for it), so I've ordered one.
  Little things like that mean you don't actually get unecessary stress in a situation like this.
  It's not something that is going to save you from nuclear holocaust or in general the collapse of human civilization, but it will save you from spending days without food or water or the stress of not knowing what's going on, such as in such a long and unsual blackout, a flood or other similar more frequent catastrophes.
- I don’t think it will matter. We need modern logistics to produce and get food to people. Without that 90% of people will starve in the first few months.
  It’s good to have supplies for regional disasters and events that only last a few weeks or months. But if the national grid is going to be out for a year or more and things like fuel and food can’t be transported and stored at key locations then it’s all going to shit.
  
  A hundred years ago most food was grown a days walk away from a person. With no Diesel production or distribution, which some flairs knock out, there is no warehouse refrigeration.
  Even with reserves, there are spare parts drying up. Trucks, ships and planes need constant work.
  Some areas would get by, grains and beans can be moved without all that. Probably a huge percentage would survive. Barely
- you cab use it unless you have it.
  get what you need, take what you want.
They said we weren't prepared for a pandemic, either.
Shit we gotta fix this.
Don't look up
Man you know it’s bad when you’re rooting for this or a civil war or nukes. Just to reset everything. I’m so over being an American.
- If it makes you feel better, even if you migrate to another country and gain citizenship, you still have to pay income taxes to the US.
  
  You won’t have to pay anything unless you’re pulling in the equivalent of >$126,500 USD in foreign income. Then you’re taxed on what you make above that. My H&R Block lady here in Germany told me all about it when I file every year. And boy howdy is fuuuuucking stupid that I’m having to file US taxes every year. I could stop, but then everything falls apart for me.
good thing we got rid of fema in 2025 then
im just not gonna worry about the sun
- It's gonna get you!
Im starting to think the fermi paradox is based around what philosophy it follows. "Efficiency" like lean or robustness like six sigma.
- If a transmissions company tried to spend money preparing for a disaster like this, their shareholders would sue them into the ground and lobby to make it illegal to acknowledge the existence of the sun.
  
  I mean, having a tested and proven DR/BCM plan is kind of an important part of being a serious business....

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