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Recently declassified documents suggest that in August 1972, a massive, high-velocity coronal mass ejection caused many sea mines to detonate unexpectedly. A new look is taken at the incident, taking into account more of what is known about the solar activity at the time.
The extreme space weather events of early August 1972 had significant impact on the US Navy, which have not been widely reported. These effects, long buried in the Vietnam War archives, add credence to the severity of the storm: a nearly instantaneous, unintended detonation of dozens of sea mines south of Hai Phong, North Vietnam on 4 August 1972. This event occurred near the end of the Vietnam War. The US Navy attributed the dramatic event to 'magnetic perturbations of solar storms.' In researching these events we determined that the widespread electric‐ and communication‐ grid disturbances that plagued North America and the disturbances in Southeast Asia late on 4 August likely resulted from propagation of major eruptive activity from the Sun to the Earth. The activity fits the description of a Carrington‐class storm minus the low latitude aurora reported in 1859. We provide insight into the solar, geophysical and military circumstances of this extraordinary situation. In our view this storm deserves a scientific revisit as a grand challenge for the space weather community, as it provides space‐age terrestrial observations of what was likely a Carrington‐class storm.
Given that nearly everything is almost fully dependent on electronics and those same electronics are connected to several large networks of copper wire which will act as antennas, what will we do now to mitigate the damage so we are more ready when a similar event occurs again?
From
Space Weather : On the Little‐Known Consequences of the 4 August 1972 Ultra‐Fast Coronal Mass Ejecta: Facts, Commentary and Call to Action
Science Alert : A Solar Storm Detonated Dozens of US Sea Mines, Declassified Navy Documents Reveal
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Saturday November 10 2018, @04:02PM (5 children)
Cars have terrible electrical systems compared to other environments. Pretty much anything design to go into a car is already built like a brick shithouse in expectation that the electrical system is going to be noisy and somewhat unpredictable. Not to mention the whole "EMP kills all the modern cars" meme is a great plot device, but it's also pure fiction.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday November 10 2018, @06:27PM (4 children)
Also I think most cars are still made of steel, which gives a great Faraday cage.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by dry on Sunday November 11 2018, @05:15AM
One of the Only places at home I get cell reception is in my truck, in a cubby hole under the dash. That ungrounded metal cage works great as an antenna.
(Score: 2) by KilroySmith on Monday November 12 2018, @03:54AM (2 children)
With those gigantic glass windows, it's not a Faraday cage, and probably has essentially zero affect on incoming RF.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday November 12 2018, @06:40AM (1 child)
I don't know about your car, but in the cars I know there are no windows into the engine bay.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by KilroySmith on Monday November 12 2018, @03:58PM
True - but the entire bottom of the engine compartment is open, along with the seams between the hood and fenders, as well as the cooling openings at the front. It's better than nothing, but not much, and might protect the ECU somewhat.
Unfortunately, the body computer (which controls unlocking the doors, communications with the key, etc) tend to be in the passenger compartment, which does have the gigantic windows...