Or are we fucked because when it comes to science things people generally just roll their eyes and say, "Those fucking scientists always predict shit that doesn't happen!" and they'll wait until the sat at the L1 point gives us 10 minutes warning before they say, "Shit, why didn't we plan ahead!"

Apparently even just having the power companies shut down the power in the 10 minutes, 20 minutes if we're lucky, warning that we get could save a lot of money, and lives. The sat though is 15 years old and NASA is surprised it's still operating now, let alone in the next couple of years.

There's a large chance that one of these storms in the next couple of years could be the largest in recorded history. The biggest one happened in, if memory serves me right, 1859. Back then we didn't have many things to worry about, but it started fires along the transmission lines they had back thing and sparks were reported shooting out of equipment attached to it. Nowadays we're a lot more sensitive to solar storms. Even losing access to the GPS system could cause mass financial problems since the clocks of the GPS system are used by financial institutions the world over to accurately record the time of transactions (why do they need to be that accurate anyway?).

It might be cool seeing the southern and northern lights in the tropics, but the cost probably won't be worth it.

Are civilian planes reinforced against this kind of thing?

MacIver wrote:Are civilian planes reinforced against this kind of thing?

If it isn't regulated, then highly doubtful. Airlines will only be willing to spend the extra money it would take when planes start falling from the sky or when government enforces it.

Aircraft nowadays tend to rely on GPS from what I understand for navigation. The GPS system will be especially vulnerable because even if their electronics aren't knocked out the sats will change orbits due to atmospheric drag (the flares, CME will heat up the atmosphere causing it to expand) and that will mean the relativistic calculations will be out of whack.

CdesignProponentsist wrote:

MacIver wrote:Are civilian planes reinforced against this kind of thing?

If it isn't regulated, then highly doubtful. Airlines will only be willing to spend the extra money it would take when planes start falling from the sky or when government enforces it.

Yeah, they tend to wait for an accident and regulations to be passed, which they usually then fight to get time extended to do it (basically a jumbo jet sitting in a hangar for a day will lose an airline millions of dollars) and it's only when another accident occurs that push comes to shove and they are forced to ground their fleet and put the changes in now.

I watch a lot of Aircrash Investigation (Mayday).