Could solar storms stop...kettle working?

Kettles, drills etc.

Yes perhaps in theory could be affected by solar storms, but in practice I wouldn't expect that they would because they are not sensitive enough to be. They would require a very strong magmnetic field which would need to be far greater than generated by a solar storm.

TVs, mobiles etc have very sensitive electonics that can be affected by magnetic fields from solar storms introducing an electrical current that damages the components.

While it is possible for strong electric fields to damage electronics- the EMP efects more associated with a nuclear device exploding are different from those of what the sun could do.

The power outage that impacted Quebec occured because of the antenna effect of thousands of miles of powerlines absorbing energy that was resonant to the powerlines for length, and this triggered one control system to go down and that unbalanced the system enough to cause a cascade of failures that left quite a large portion of North America without power.

That type of energy is not very likely if at all to cause a problem with your devices directly unless they are plugged into a wall outlet at the time of a power surge caused by a power control system failure elsewhere.

Indirect issues could arise if the ioniztion in the upper atmosphere were enough to interfere with line of sight communications- in other words, your FM and PWM signals. It would only last as long as the aurora were above your area. While it is in theory possible it could adversely affect a PV solar array, it is not highly likely.

EMP on the other hand- is a broad spectrum burst of electromagnetic radiation that can burn out the micro-wires inside of the electronic components that make your Ipod, or MP3 player, or cell phone or whatever device you have unless it is fully shielded in a grounded enclosure. This would leave your Ipad useful only as a clipboard or serving tray.

The matter of the items you describe would be unaffected because the magnitude of energy to damage them would be great enough to injure or kill you if an electric drill or an electric kettle were to be rendered useless.

So your electronic devices will be reasonably safe, you may encounter some issues with infrastructure systems that some of those devices rely upon, but they will be back to normal when the infrastructure is back functional.

Hi, Jack & Poppy's Granddad here!

I saw a TV programme about these effects. Apparently, we're heading into a Solar Storm phase this month! This occurs cyclically, over a period of many years.

Since the last phase, our technology has advanced in such a way that we rely heavily on miniaturised circuitry, running at much lower voltages. Many control systems rely on these smaller components to handle the heavy switching of high-voltage distribution systems that are routed overhead. Digital displays and recording instruments create, use and store information to rapidly report and react to changes and input to safety controls more quickly than a human being ever can. Guess what - we humans have developed these processes up to levels of "safety" that exceed our ability to react to disaster.

Any process that involves safety controls on high-pressure or low temperature processes, for instance, could be interfered with. Don't even THINK about flight control and monitoring of air traffic and defence systems. Look what happened in the 911 event when aircraft were held aloft or grounded and THAT was without any contribution from the Sun! What happened in The Big Blackout - apart from a big rise in childbirths, nine months on!

How about no internet? No phone lines. No stock market links. No defence communications - just add up the obvious, then think about knock-on effects. Domino effect can only happen if you first set up your dominoes!

Apart from the Northern Lights that can only be seen within or just near the Arctic Circle, I can't think of many good things that MIGHT happen - but I AM an optimist!

It will be more than interesting to see what the real effects of this solar effect, turn out to be!

a million. there isn't any such ingredient as a "photograph voltaic typhoon." 2. photograph voltaic flares happen in basic terms on the sunlight and by no potential get everywhere close to Earth, 3. A photograph voltaic flare _may_ set off a coronal mass ejection (CME): ionized textile ejected from the sunlight's corona. 4. A CME might get pushed to Earth by utilising the photograph voltaic wind, _if_ that's pointed in the spectacular path. 5. CMEs are deflected by utilising the Earth's magnetic field, _sometimes_ producing aurora (northern lights furnishings). 6. _Only twice_ in human historic past have CMEs affected something different than aurora, in 1859 and 1989 -- those in basic terms effected extremely super cord networks: telegraph wires in 1859, HydroQuebec transmission lines in 1989. 7. From all of those weasel words ("in basic terms," "if," "might, "on occasion"), it is going to likely be sparkling that photograph voltaic flares in basic terms very very infrequently reason issues, and by no potential to customer electronics. 8. ultimately, we are nonetheless at minimum photograph voltaic activity, and the subsequent optimum, now envisioned for previous due 2013, is envisioned to be under common.