Are solar flares a very real danger to humans?

This goes under the section "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." While it's good to be prepared, the preppers are going way overboard. The only ones who profit from all this are people selling them underground bunkers, weapons and ammo, and canned food.

Do you realize that solar flares happen all the time. For thousands of years the humanity was blissfully unaware that solar flares even existed. It didn't prevent the ancients from building the Pyramids or writing the Iliad.

The solar flares do have a potential of disrupting the UNPROTECTED (emphasis added) electricity grids and communications networks. The 1859 events did cause the widespread disruption of the telegraph service. At the time, people didn't even know about the solar flares, so the telegraph network was not protected. The additional current induced by the solar flare caused to paper insulation of the telegraph wires to burn. Pieces of burning insulation fell to the ground igniting brush fires which, in turn, set the telegraph poles on fire, toppling them. More recently, a solar flare caused some blackouts in Quebec.

Could a flare disrupt parts of the electrical grid? Yes, but not on the scale that brings down the civilization, like preppers predict. There are many other disasters that are more likely to happen that may cause short term disruptions, but the solar flares are way, way down that list.

There are many more disasters more likely to happen than the solar flare hitting Earth. In 2003 it was a failure to trim the trees along the transmission line right-of-way, not the solar flare that caused the massive blackout in the US Northeast. In 2004 a series of hurricanes hit Florida, toppling transmission lines. The town where my parents lived got hit hard by Hurricane Charlie. Yet, just 40 miles away in Sarasota, FL, life went on as if nothing had happened.

The answers seem to range from no threat at all to a massive threat. The actual facts probably are somewhere in the middle. The fact is we've never been hit by a massive one in modern times.

Flares, solar wind streams, plasma ejections (Coronal Mass Ejections, CMEs), and even planetary alignments can help cause earthquakes.

If you have concerns there is a fellow on YouTube that has been tracking the sun for more than a year and giving daily reports. I suggest you watch the video of How To Watch The Sun.

Not much of a risk now. The only real hazard is that a large Solar flare or "Coronal Mass Ejection" could induce excess current in long distance transmission cables. That in turn can damage the transformers.

Detection, forecasting and fast circuit breakers have all improved a lot since the first event in Canada.

Small systems would never be affected - they are weak affecrs and need a hundred miles of cable to get a significant power surge. This is no longer much of a threat.

There is a significant risk. Solar flares are not directly dangerous to human life, but they can take out utility power. See this description of a 1989 event (coronal mass ejection; but that difference doesn't mater to you):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1989_geomagneti...

This one, in 1859, was much more severe:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859

In 1859, there wasn't much electrical besides telegraph, so the economic damage was minimal.

The threat today is a civilization-ending collapse of the electrical power grid. Utility operators are taking steps to modify their systems to resist such damage, and we're now monitoring the sun for dangerous activity much more closely.

It's a risk, like all the other risks in life: Hurricanes, tornadoes, fire, flood... Have three days of non-perishable food and water for everyone in your household. That will get you through most disasters.

Don't go crazy prepping, unless you want to be on TV.

Solar flares produce high energy particles and radiation that are dangerous to living organisms. However, at the surface of the Earth we are well protected from the effects of solar flares and other solar activity by the Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere. The most dangerous emissions from flares are energetic charged particles (primarily high-energy protons) and electromagnetic radiation (primarily x-rays).

The x-rays from flares are stopped by our atmosphere well above the Earth's surface. They do disturb the Earth's ionosphere, however, which in turn disturbs some radio communications. Along with energetic ultraviolet radiation, they heat the Earth’s outer atmosphere, causing it to expand. This increases the drag on Earth-orbiting satellites, reducing their lifetime in orbit. Also, both intense radio emission from flares and these changes in the atmosphere can degrade the precision of GPS measurements.

No ,it's like 4th july fire work but in million mega scale .

Last large flare that was unleashed at may 2012 was 12 times earth size ,which by the chance the location of the flare was not toward the earth strictly and if was ,today me and you were not exist to ask any question or answer any .particles cause of the flare are like X-RAY and Ultra violet waves ,which it pass trough to the all single cell of the body and if amount of the wave be more than a level it kill the cells immediately.What is filter the sun radiation it's call magnetic filed of the earth which is act as shield to direct the charge particles to the polarity of the earth at north and south .where there's no human live in or very low population are exist.There are different class of the flare which X class are most dangerous type and contain very high level of the radiation in a manner of the second ,some thing like when camera flush in your eye ,which it can blind the person in manner of second.

Latest images from the sun it show that black spots in the sun are vanished ,this may cause of new level of activity in the sun surface which it can cause increase of the temperature in outer lay of the sun,Stars like our sun has life span ,which they turn to dwarf and the giant red ,which it appeared as increase in diameter of the star ,If sun be at beginning age of being dwarf ,the external temperature will increase in a massive rate .That will be effect all the solar system as well ,which we can see the sign of increase the temperature at earth surface and sea water (climate change)There's a prophecy which is talk about rain of the fire from sky and sky in fire ,which it's a fenumun cause of the sun activity and will burn the atmosphere ,So one of the possible extinction of the earth is sun it self .You can find out level of the heat wave by monitoring the tree and vegetation ,which you will see how leaves show reaction to the heat wave ,same thing it's apply to the human skin and body .and it's danger as atomic bomb radiation .

the possibility exists, just as the possibility of an asteroid strike exists, that the earth will be bathed in an intense amount of ionizing energy from a solar flare. The risk would naturally rise if we enter a period of a weakened magnetic field, since the magnetic field is our primary defense against the influx of solar-derived ionizing energy. It is a risk, and a real one, but not a highly likely one.

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