We are looking at the month of Sept 2013 to be the largest Solar Flare month in over 100 years. At the bottom of page are some great protection ideas and links to products that will help protect you and your electronics.
The following articles credit is given to the contributing web sites above the article:
A solar flare could wipe out the communications and electrical grids while frying a wide variety of electronics, quickly sending us back to the 19th Century. says:
Glen Harlan Reynolds, a professor of Law at the University of Tennessee. His article was in USA today – EDT June 28, 2013
futurescience.com – © 2009-2013 Jerry Emanuelson
The science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke once said:
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
This statement is commonly known as Clarke’s Third Law. Many people have heard this quotation, but few people really think about its implications.
We now live in a world that is so completely immersed in advanced technology that we depend upon it for our very survival. Most of the actions that we depend upon for our everyday activities — from flipping a switch to make the lights come on to obtaining all of our food supplies at a nearby supermarket — are things that any individual from a century ago would consider magic.
Solar storms would primarily affect the power grid, and are not likely to harm things like computers. Also, solar storms would only disrupt communications temporarily, and would not be likely to cause direct harm to communications equipment (except for satellites). An extremely large solar storm, though, would induce geomagnetic currents that could destroy a substantial fraction of the very largest transformers on the power grid (possibly over much of the world). If this happened, electric power loss due to a large solar storm would be out for a period of years and possibly decades. Unlike nuclear EMP, such a solar storm is an eventual inevitability. The last solar storm that could have caused this level of damage happened in 1859, before the power grid was in place (although in 1921 a large solar storm, of briefer duration than the 1859 event, occurred which affected a much smaller area of the planet). The power grid has only been in place for a fraction of one percent of human history, and a really large solar storm (of the size and duration of the 1859 event) has not happened in that time.
Because of the inevitability of a large solar superstorm, we have to accept the fact that the current electric power grid upon which our lives depend is only a temporary infrastructure. This temporary infrastructure has served us very well, and we now have entrusted our very lives to it.
The fact that the electric power grid began as a convenience, but has become a necessity for sustaining life, is both one of the most beneficial, and one of the most dangerous, facts of 21st century existence. We do not know how long the current power grid will last; but if it not replaced by a robust permanent infrastructure in time, hundreds of millions of people will die when the electric power grid collapses simultaneously in many countries. How such a collapse occurs is very well known, and the methods to either prevent it, or to have spare transformers in place to fairly quickly repair it, are also well known. Although these preventive measures would not be terribly expensive, they would take some time to put into place; and those things have never been done.
Solar storms only produce something similar to the E3 component of nuclear EMP. Solar storms will not destroy your car, (at least not any of the solar storms that have occurred in the past million years). If you own an electric car, though, it may be wise to avoid charging it during an active severe geomagnetic storm.
Although a major electromagnetic disturbance that would destroy large parts of the electrical grid is almost inevitable in the next century, it is important to keep things in the proper perspective. There is a reasonable chance that people will come to their senses in time, and have the electrical power grid protected before such an event happens. Although a hardened power grid does not seem likely in the near future, the dangers to the power grid are becoming much more widely known.(Keep in mind our power companies can ground and stabilize the grid, they just haven’t)
Another encouraging trend is the fact that far more people are prepared to be self-sufficient for at least a few weeks than was the case just a few years ago. The greater the number of people who have made at least minimal preparations for a disaster, the smaller will be the overall impact of the disaster.
Protection:
Have a good stock of water and food that will last a few weeks at minimum.
Make yourself a few different size Faraday boxes for your electronic devices! They are simple to make and effective. Be sure to protect your items by putting them in freezer zip lock bags before putting them into the Faraday Box.. Cover the outside of a box with tin foil. Be sure nothing inside of box touches the metal foil (this is where the plastic bag helps) so just the out side of box gets covered with foil. I have a smaller box I take in the car for my phone and i pad. According to NASA and other sources Sept. 2013 we will experience the most intense solar flares in over 100 years. It may be a good idea to protect your phone,I pad, etc as much as possible. Just place your devices inside when you are not using them. Back up all your data. Because if your device is out during a flare it may be fried and all your data lost. I have a metal emergency blanket I am covering my computer with when I am not on it.
Lets all be safe and take a few easy precautions rather than deal with the consequences.
Stirling Z – True EMF Solutions
