Two articles published in the UK's Independent that discuss where the
US Space Weather Prediction Center are collaborating with the UK Met Office
to "improve solar weather forecasting to a point to warn power companies of
of an imminent storm" arguably highlights the difference between what was
actually said by the original spokesperson and what the press like to report.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Tom Brogden US Space Weather Prediction Center and quoted in the Independent
There is a feeling that if a "category 5" solar storm – the biggest of the five categories – were to be predicted, then taking the grid off-line before it is due to hit Earth and letting the storm pass would be better than trying to keep things running, he said.
In 1989, a solar geomagentic storm knocked out the electricity grid across large parts of Canada. The loss cascaded across the United States and caused power problems as far away as California. The greatest fear is a massive storm as big as the one documented by astronomer Richard Carrington in 1859, which burnt out telegraph wires.
"The sort of storms capable of doing that are fairly rare events. We refer to them as 'black swans'," Dr Bogdan said. "If the Carrington event occurred today, and power grid operators did not take efforts to safeguard their infrastructure, then we could be facing a scenario like that."
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See
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/pe...g-2296759.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...d-2296748.html