How can we prepare for solar flares? How do we know what to expect if a massive flare is headed for our beautiful blue planet? We can learn from the history of the Carrington Event. A normal solar flare takes a few days to reach the earth, however, during the 1859 event it reached our planet in a mere 18 hours. If a similar event were to occur today, the earths magnetic field would be unable to catch all the particles. This would result in an aurora that would no longer just be isolated to the poles and there may be auroras over the United States and the Caribbean. Most of us would probably just see this as a fascinating display of color and beauty, however, we would be directly impacted if our electronics were stopped by this event. What do you think would happen if such a huge event would cause power grid outages that would last years? Would we be able to survive or do you think that mass chaos would break out?
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