Slashdot Mirror
Can Solar Storms Cause Wildfires?
astroengine writes "In the wake of recent solar activity, some space cadets were very quick to point out a causal link between geomagnetic storms and the wildfires currently ravaging the landscape surrounding Moscow. Of course, this is patently false. But is there a scenario when the onset of a solar storm could have secondary effects, sparking fires in already arid regions? Possibly. What's more, it already happened, 150 years ago."
lightning, arson and others are more likely
Here in Oz power lines are a major cause of bushfires without any help from solar flares.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
I've had just about enough of this "Sun". First, we've learned it's to blame for global warming, now it's setting fires throughout the world. Why, why does it hate our liberties? How many innocents must die of skin cancer before someone acts? How many children must we let it burn on metal playground equipment? When will it strike you with sunburn in your very own backyard?? The world must stand up to this terrorism! We must strike fast and we must strike hard! All good men must stand up and demand the world governments strike with the biggest atomic - no, hydrogen bomb and wipe this great evil from the sky above!!!
Urge your leaders to act now before it is to late! Think of the children!
Shameless plug for my photos on Flickr
assignment or equality?
THL phish sticks
So their logic is that the telegraph (so phone, now?) lines can get overwhelmed and break, sparking fires?
Wow, that seems like a long way to go. (For one thing, I think that phone and power lines have more protection on them now. You might overload a transformer or even take down an entire grid, but I should think widespread sparking would be uncommon. They'd have had problems all over in Canada already, if not.)
If it causes fires on earth, it might singe Uranus too.
rewriting history since 2109
Assignment... people stopped caring about wildfires, so it's just being replaced with Global Warming...
Recent reports state that Global Warming is spreading across Russia, some people are worried this years Global Warming season in California could result in the most Global Warmings to date.
Sir, your sun has been arrested for arson.
The worst part was that he did it during a coronal mass ejection. That makes it a sex crime.
NASA SP-426, "Sun, Weather, and Climate, 1978m John R. Herman and Richard A. Goldberg, republished 1985 by Dover Publications, Inc. Section 3.2 talks about correlations with the 22 year Hale Solar Cycle (the 11 year cycles have alternate polarity). Rainfall and drought are the first two mentioned..... not exactly the solar storm, but still the sun
Oh yeah?
"Intense solar flares release very-high-energy particles that can cause radiation poisoning to humans (and mammals in general) in the same way as low-energy radiation from nuclear blasts."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_storm
I'll be heading to the basement with my tinfoil hat on while you "skeptics" get burnt to a crisp!
WTF? The parent post is "flamebait" and the GP is "insightful"???
As someone who has lived in both city and country Victoria for half a century I would say the parent is informative and the GP is a know nothing bogon.
Aside from the acurate points in the parent post, natives did not control burn mountain forests as the GP claims. They lit uncontrolled fires in grasslands, purely for hunting purposes.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
I could have added that the most devastating events involved crown fires, which don't respect our puny attempts at burning off.
Now it may have been true that too little hazard reduction had been undertaken in the years leading up to the first in the series of truly horrific seasons, the summer of 2000-01. But, at least where I live, that all changed pretty quickly thereafter (along with the building codes). And there was an day this winter when the Sydney CBD was choked with smoke from burning in the Blue Mountains. So even if you never left Sydney you couldn't be unaware that lost of burning off is being conducted over winter.
At least he didn't call hazard reduction "back-burning," and I have to admit it did give me a bit of a chuckle that of all mods "Flamebait" was used.
Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
Great! This summer, my best suntan ever!
Wait a second before we destroy the Sun! What if these CMEs and radiation caused the mutations which differentiated our species? We could be risking future evolutionary improvements by removing this source for modifying DNA. Of course, we could start a government sponsored project to randomly administer bursts of mutating radiation in the hopes of creating a better species.... Oh wait, never mind, we already have cellphones.
Actually, there is some evidence that the recent Russian wildfires, while not caused by solar storms, were in fact fostered by jet stream blocking events that seem to occur more often during lulls in solar activity.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
I think you made the mistake of using this good old favourite meme in an inappropriate way - i.e. with it making sense for once.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Let's say there is another massive CME, or one even more massive than the one in 1859. How would you protect your electronics? Would you shove them into anti-static bags? Would they need to be (nearly) air tight, or would it be sufficient to just drape the bags over things? Would that would work for hard drives, cell phones, and if you had some large enough, PCs as well? What about data centers? Obviously, unplugging them would be a requirement, too.
You can have "Possibly."
OR "What's more, it already happened, 150 years ago."
Either it may have happened 150 years ago, which would be "Possibly" or did which would be "Yes."
Ummmm... In Soviet Russia the wildfires start solar flares?
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw