http://dsc.discovery.com/

They had a segment called "Solar Storm" that I found very interesting. If you get a chance to see it, take a gander s.

All life all holiness come from you O Lord
http://pwp.surfglobal.net/mjmiller/index.htm

In article ,
"Verstaldin" wrote:

http://dsc.discovery.com/

They had a segment called "Solar Storm" that I found very interesting. If you
get a chance to see it, take a gander s.

All life all holiness come from you O Lord
http://pwp.surfglobal.net/mjmiller/index.htm

I don't own a TV. Sometime I watch video on the net but the Discovery
site does not stream any of their programs.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

Yes, I caught the show, but was half-sleeping. Did they say the storm
could wipe out electronic gear only if it was in operation? I think
that was the premise the mayor of Brooklyn was operating under when she
disconnected the grid. I think she figured when the storm gone she
could just fire up all her gear.

I find it hard to believe that any storm or EMP type of event is going
to kill transformers. Big steel laminations and fat copper wires.
What was that all about?

regards,
Bob

Yes, I saw it. My impression, as an engineer, was that
it was a bit over blown. Some of the damage they described
just doesn't seem realistic. Much of it made an EMP from
a nuclear blast seem insignificant.

Ya never know though. I might be eating these words someday!

Steve
"Verstaldin" wrote in message ...
http://dsc.discovery.com/

They had a segment called "Solar Storm" that I found very interesting. If you get a chance to see it, take a gander s.

All life all holiness come from you O Lord
http://pwp.surfglobal.net/mjmiller/index.htm

"Verstaldin" wrote:

http://dsc.discovery.com/

They had a segment called "Solar Storm" that I found very interesting. If you get a chance to see it, take a gander s.


I found it to be pretty lame, actually. The only things worth hearing
were the interview snippets between the dramatization. It would have
been interesting to hear about that flare a couple years back and what
its impact would have been had it hit directly.

I'd be very surprised if such a scenereo could possibly play out --
the worst case I could see happening is breakers across the grid being
tripped or damaged and maybe -- maybe a national/continental black
start being needed. That'd be bad enough but it wouldn't be months
long. A week, perhaps, to get every corner of the country up, but
major metro areas within a couple days.


--
Eric F. Richards

"The weird part is that I can feel productive even when I'm doomed."
- Dilbert

Maybe the guys wearing tin hats have something after all s. The size of such a CME would have to be really tremendous and the power in it. It likely would not do anybody's equipment any good, and if it were that energetic, it would not make any difference if it were on or off to my way of thinking. I can see if a truly enormous overload were already in progress when the "storm" hit like the hottest day of the summer), transformers could be damaged, but what power company would not have more transformers ? Satellites for sure would be toast and that could take a very long time to replace, and th defense department would have a major problem.

All life all holiness come from you O Lord
http://pwp.surfglobal.net/mjmiller/index.htm





"Eric F. Richards" wrote in message ...
"Verstaldin" wrote:

http://dsc.discovery.com/

They had a segment called "Solar Storm" that I found very interesting. If you get a chance to see it, take a gander s.


I found it to be pretty lame, actually. The only things worth hearing
were the interview snippets between the dramatization. It would have
been interesting to hear about that flare a couple years back and what
its impact would have been had it hit directly.

I'd be very surprised if such a scenereo could possibly play out --
the worst case I could see happening is breakers across the grid being
tripped or damaged and maybe -- maybe a national/continental black
start being needed. That'd be bad enough but it wouldn't be months
long. A week, perhaps, to get every corner of the country up, but
major metro areas within a couple days.


--
Eric F. Richards

"The weird part is that I can feel productive even when I'm doomed."
- Dilbert

I don't think power transformers are stocked like spares at every power
company site.. They are designed to be very reliable. There are
probably spares around, but not many. I can't imagine a scene where a
bunch of them could fail at once. They are rugged devices and I would
thinjk well protected as well.

On 21 Mar 2006 06:55:25 -0800, "N9NEO"
wrote:

I don't think power transformers are stocked like spares at every power
company site.. They are designed to be very reliable. There are
probably spares around, but not many. I can't imagine a scene where a
bunch of them could fail at once. They are rugged devices and I would
thinjk well protected as well.

There are fuses all over the medium voltage power distribution system.
They are usually fusible links that pop-open when they trip for easy
spotting. Substations use circuit breakers the size of a car that can
occasionally make huge lightning bolts when they open.

A CME trips overloads at distribution control centers way more often
than it damages any hardware components. This causes other safety
systems to open circuits. Once the grid has shut down, it must be
brought back up in an orderly fashion. This takes time.