New data center protects against solar storms and nuclear EMPs

http://www.computerworld.com/

• 
  Strong solar storm won't fry electronics
• Tech apocalypse: Five doomsday scenarios for IT
• Severe space weather: How big a threat?

Credit: Thinkstock

Data loss from an electromagnetic pulse is the bigger worry

By Patrick Thibodeau

Computerworld | Sep 15, 2014 4:11 AM PT 

 

In Boyers, Pa., a recently opened 2,000-sq.-ft. data center has been purpose-built to protect against an electromagnetic pulse (EMP), either generated by a solar storm or a nuclear event.

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• New data center protects against solar storms and nuclear EMPs

The company that built the facility isn't disclosing exactly how the data center was constructed or what materials were used. But broadly, it did say that the structure has an inner skin and an outer skin that use a combination of thicknesses and metals to provide EMP protection. 
There are other data centers that protect against electromagnetic pulses, which can be generated by solar storms or high-altitude nuclear blasts. Underground data centers, in particular, advertise this capability. And some vendors offer containers and cabinets that shield IT equipment from EMPs, which can fry circuits.

But there's been little discussion, overall, about whether EMP protection should be a standard risk mitigation feature in data centers.

The two solar storms that began arriving Thursday night aren't strong enough to hurt electronics on the ground, though they could disrupt GPS and radio communications. More than anything, they're a reminder of a risk that is the subject of steady warnings but isn't immediate enough to spur people to do much about it -- though it is real enough to inspire visions of apocalyptic scenarios among Washington policy makers.
 Betting against an EMP event is a gamble. On July 23, 2012, a solar super storm released a coronal mass ejection (CME) that passed through the Earth's orbit but missed the Earth itself. It is believed to have been as powerful as the 1859 Carrington Event, a solar storm that disrupted and knocked out the most advanced electronic communications medium of the day, the telegraph.
 The perfect solar storm would require a big sun spot cluster and a very rapid CME, and the magnetic field inside the solar storm would have to couple perfectly with the Earth's magnetic field. If that happened, the consequences could be significant, William Murtagh, program coordinator at U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center, said Thursday.

"We're concerned that can happen," he said about the prospect of a major solar storm hitting the Earth. The 2012 solar storm "was very powerful, and some have suggested it would have been on par with a Carrington-level event." But that particular storm was not directed at the Earth, he said.
EMP protection can be built into a data center at very little additional cost, said Kris Domich, president of Cyber Innovation Labs - Professional Services (CIL). The company is the founding member of EMP Grid Services, a recently formed company responsible for the EMP-ready data center in Boyers, Pa. CIL provides infrastructure services.

Domich said the idea for the EMP-resistant data center came from a customer, an insurer, that wanted to protect its data from electromagnetic pulses.
 An EMP can "irrevocably destroy" data, said Domich. The magnetic field on a disk that is used to set the data, if not maintained, or if it is abruptly or intensely changed, will wipe out the data, he said.

Lee Kirby, CTO of the Uptime Institute, a data center advisory and research group, said that EMP risks are not high on the list of things that data center managers worry about. But he said that may be more because of the newness of this industry.

"When you look at it from a business justification viewpoint, [EMP protection] gets pushed way down the line, just from a probability point of view," Kirby said.
Nonetheless, he said, the threat of electromagnetic pulses could become a topic of much discussion for data center professionals.

There have been a number of government reports, as well as congressional hearings, detailing the threats posed by EMPs. The idea that an EMP could be generated by a terrorist-sponsored nuclear blast is getting more attention, particularly because of concerns about North Korea and Iran.
A nuclear blast 60 miles up in the atmosphere could expose about 1.5 million square miles of territory to EMP impacts that could, among other things, knock out SCADA systems that help run the infrastructure of electric and water utilities and oil and gas pipeline systems. 
The loss of electric power over a substantial period of time is "likely to be catastrophic, and many people may ultimately die for lack of the basic elements necessary to sustain life in dense urban and suburban communities," according to a 2008 U.S. government report that examined the effects of an EMP event.

Repairing the power grid could take four to 10 years, and the economic cost could exceed $2 trillion.

EMPs send out a pulse of energy that can short-circuit electronics in everything from cellphones and computers in cars to enterprise networks. EMP-generating devices are not necessarily nuclear, and they can be built with over-the-counter parts.
 Congress has held repeated hearings over the years, particularly since the 9/11 attacks in 2001, and there have been a number of government reports that describe the consequences. But there is no action plan, and the need for EMP protection sits lower on the list of public-sector priorities than increasingly costly infrastructure projects, such as efforts to repair or replace aging bridges, roads and water lines.
 The problem may that EMPs are not seen as an immediate threat. According to one government estimate, made by intelligence agencies, a crippling solar geomagnetic storm is unlikely to occur more than once in 100 years.
 A U.S. House bill, the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act (HR 3410), requires the government to give more attention to EMP disaster planning and to "proactively educate" the owners of critical infrastructure about the threat of electromagnetic pulses. But it has not advanced beyond a committee in this Congress.

How a solar storm two years ago nearly caused a catastrophe on Earth

http://www.washingtonpost.com/

• By Jason Samenow

• July 23 at 3:48 pm

Comments

CME captured by NASA July 23, 2012 (NASA

On July 23, 2012, the sun unleashed two massive clouds of plasma that barely missed a catastrophic encounter with the Earth’s atmosphere.  These plasma clouds, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), comprised a solar storm thought to be the most powerful in at least 150 years.
“If it had hit, we would still be picking up the pieces,” physicist Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado tells NASA.

Via NASA: “This movie shows a coronal mass ejection (CME) on the sun from July 22, 2012 at 10:00 p.m. EDT until 2 a.m. on July 23 as captured by NASA’s Solar Terrestrial RElations Observatory-Ahead (STEREO-A). Because the CME headed in STEREO-A’s direction, it appears like a giant halo around the sun. NOTE: This video loops 3 times.” Credit: NASA/STEREO Fortunately, the blast site of the CMEs was not directed at Earth.  Had this event occurred a week earlier when the point of eruption was Earth-facing, a potentially disastrous outcome would have unfolded.
“I have come away from our recent studies more convinced than ever that Earth and its inhabitants were incredibly fortunate that the 2012 eruption happened when it did,” Baker tells NASA.  “If the eruption had occurred only one week earlier, Earth would have been in the line of fire.”

Video overview of July 23, 2012 solar storm A CME double whammy of this potency striking Earth would likely cripple satellite communications and could severely damage the power grid.  NASA offers this sobering assessment:

Analysts believe that a direct hit … could cause widespread power blackouts, disabling everything that plugs into a wall socket.  Most people wouldn’t even be able to flush their toilet because urban water supplies largely rely on electric pumps.
. . .
According to a study by the National Academy of Sciences, the total economic impact could exceed $2 trillion or 20 times greater than the costs of a Hurricane Katrina. Multi-ton transformers damaged by such a storm might take years to repair.

CWG’s Steve Tracton put it this way in his frightening overview of the risks of a severe solar storm: “The consequences could be devastating for commerce, transportation, agriculture and food stocks, fuel and water supplies, human health and medical facilities, national security, and daily life in general.”
Solar physicists compare the 2012 storm to the so-called Carrington solar storm of September 1859, named after English astronomer Richard Carrington who documented the event.   
“In my view the July 2012 storm was in all respects at least as strong as the 1859 Carrington event,” Baker tells NASA. “The only difference is, it missed.”
During the Carrington event, the northern lights were seen as far south as Cuba and Hawaii according to historical accounts.  The solar eruption “caused global telegraph lines to spark, setting fire to some telegraph offices,” NASA  notes.
NASA says the July 2012 storm was particularly intense because a CME had traveled along the same path just days before the July 23 double whammy – clearing the way for maximum effect, like a snowplow.
“This double-CME traveled through a region of space that had been cleared out by yet another CME four days earlier,” NASA says. ” As a result, the storm clouds were not decelerated as much as usual by their transit through the interplanetary medium.”
NASA’s online article about the science of this solar storm is well-worth the read.  Perhaps the scariest finding reported in the article is this:  There is a 12 percent chance of a Carrington-type event on Earth in the next 10 years according to Pete Riley of Predictive Science Inc.
“Initially, I was quite surprised that the odds were so high, but the statistics appear to be correct,” Riley tells NASA.  “It is a sobering figure.”
It’s even more sobering when considering the conclusion of Steve Tracton’s 2013 article: Are we ready yet for potentially disastrous impacts of space weather? Tracton’s answer: “an unequivocal, if not surprising, no!”

Scientists say destructive solar blasts narrowly missed Earth in 2012

http://www.reuters.com/

By Laila Kearney

Thu Mar 20, 2014 10:14am EDT

20 Comments

This image, captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, shows the M5.3 class solar flare that peaked on July 4, 2012, at 5:55 AM EDT and released on July 5, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/NASA/SDO/AIA/Helioviewer/Handout

(Reuters) - Fierce solar blasts that could have badly damaged electrical grids and disabled satellites in space narrowly missed Earth in 2012, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.
The bursts would have wreaked havoc on the Earth's magnetic field, matching the severity of the 1859 Carrington event, the largest solar magnetic storm ever reported on the planet. That blast knocked out the telegraph system across the United States, according to University of California, Berkeley research physicist Janet Luhmann.
"Had it hit Earth, it probably would have been like the big one in 1859, but the effect today, with our modern technologies, would have been tremendous," Luhmann said in a statement.
A 2013 study estimated that a solar storm like the Carrington Event could take a $2.6 trillion bite out of the current global economy.
Massive bursts of solar wind and magnetic fields, shot into space on July 23, 2012, would have been aimed directly at Earth if they had happened nine days earlier, Luhmann said.
The bursts from the sun, called coronal mass ejections, carried southward magnetic fields and would have clashed with Earth's northward field, causing a shift in electrical currents that could have caused electrical transformers to burst into flames, Luhmann said. The fields also would have interfered with global positioning system satellites.
The event, detected by NASA's STEREO A spacecraft, is the focus of a paper that was released in the journal Nature Communications on Tuesday by Luhmann, China's State Key Laboratory of Space Weather professor Ying Liu and their colleagues.
Although coronal mass ejections can happen several times a day during the sun's most active 11-year cycle, the blasts are usually small or weak compared to the 2012 and 1859 events, she said.
Luhmann said that by studying images captured by the sun-observing spacecraft, scientists can better understand coronal mass ejections and predict solar magnetic storms in the future.
"We have the opportunity to really look closely at one of these events in all of its glory and look at why in this instance was so extreme," Luhmann said.
(This version of the story corrects two words, changing "injections" to "ejections" in paragraphs 8 and 9.)
(Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Eric Walsh)

High-altitude nuclear explosion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

How the peak EMP on the ground varies with the weapon yield and burst altitude. Note that the yield here is the prompt gamma ray output measured in kilotons. This varies from 0.1-0.5% of the total weapon yield, depending on weapon design. The 1.4 Mt total yield 1962 Starfish test had an output of 0.1%, hence 1.4 kt of prompt gamma rays. (The blue 'pre-ionisation' curve applies where gamma and x-rays from the weapon's primary stage ionise the atmosphere, making it electrically conductive before the main pulse from the thermonuclear stage. The pre-ionisation can literally short out part of the final EMP.)

 

High-altitude nuclear explosions (HANE) have historically been nuclear explosions which take place above altitudes of 30 km, still inside the Earth's atmosphere. Such explosions have been tests of nuclear weapons, used to determine the effects of the blast and radiation in the exoatmospheric environment. The highest was at an altitude of 540 km (335.5 mi).
The only nations to detonate nuclear weapons in outer space are the United States and the Soviet Union. The U.S. program began in 1958 with the Hardtack Teak and Hardtack Orange shots, both 3.8 megatons. These warheads were initially carried on Redstone rockets. Later tests were delivered by Thor missiles for Operation Fishbowl tests, and modified Lockheed X-17 missiles for the Argus tests. The purpose of the shots was to determine both feasibility of nuclear weapons as an anti-ballistic missile defense, as well as a means to defeat satellites and manned orbiting vehicles in space. High-altitude nuclear blasts produce significantly different effects. In the lower reaches of vacuous space, the resulting fireball grows much larger and faster than it does near the ground, and the radiation it emits travels much farther.

Contents

• 1 EMP generation
• 2 Drawbacks
• 3 Differences from atmospheric tests
• 4 Soviet high-altitude tests
• 5 List of high-altitude nuclear explosions
• 6 See also
• 7 External links

EMP generation

The strong electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that results has several components. In the first few tens of nanoseconds, about a tenth of a percent of the weapon yield appears as powerful gamma rays with energies of one to three mega-electron volts (MeV, a unit of energy). The gamma rays penetrate the atmosphere and collide with air molecules, depositing their energy to produce huge quantities of positive ions and recoil electrons (also known as Compton electrons). The impacts create MeV-energy Compton electrons that then accelerate and spiral along the Earth's magnetic field lines. The resulting transient electric fields and currents that arise generate electromagnetic emissions in the radio frequency range of 15 to 250 megahertz (MHz, or one million cycles per second). This high-altitude EMP occurs between 30 and 50 kilometers (18 and 31 miles) above the Earth's surface. The potential as an anti-satellite weapon became apparent in August 1958 during Hardtack Teak. The EMP observed at the Apia Observatory at Samoa was four times more powerful than any created by solar storms, while in July 1962 the Starfish Prime test damaged electronics in Honolulu and New Zealand (approximately 1,300 kilometers away), fused 300 street lights on Oahu (Hawaii), set off about 100 burglar alarms, and caused the failure of a microwave repeating station on Kauai, which cut off the sturdy telephone system from the other Hawaiian islands. The radius for an effective satellite kill for the various prompt radiations produced by such a nuclear weapon in space was determined to be roughly 80 km. Further testing to this end was carried out, and embodied in a Department of Defense program, Program 437.

The mechanism for a 400 km (high-altitude burst EMP: gamma rays hit the atmosphere between 20-40 km altitude, ejecting electrons which are then deflected sideways by the Earth's magnetic field.

Drawbacks

There are problems with nuclear weapons carried over to testing and deployment scenarios, however. Because of the very large radius associated with nuclear events, it was nearly impossible to prevent indiscriminate damage to other satellites, including one's own satellites. Starfish Prime produced an artificial radiation belt in space which soon destroyed three satellites (Ariel, TRAAC, and Transit 4B all failed after traversing the radiation belt, while Cosmos V, Injun I and Telstar 1 suffered minor degradation, due to some radiation damage to solar cells, etc.). The radiation dose rate was at least 60 rads/day at four months after Starfish for a well-shielded satellite or manned capsule in a polar circular earth orbit, which caused NASA concern with regard to its manned space exploration programs.

Differences from atmospheric tests

In general, nuclear effects in space (or very high altitudes) have a qualitatively different display. While an atmospheric nuclear explosion has a characteristic mushroom-shaped cloud, high-altitude and space explosions tend to manifest a spherical 'cloud,' reminiscent of other space-based explosions until distorted by Earth's magnetic field, and the charged particles resulting from the blast can cross hemispheres to create an auroral display which has led documentary maker Peter Kuran to characterize these detonations as 'the rainbow bombs'. The visual effects of a high-altitude or space-based explosion may last longer than atmospheric tests, sometimes in excess of 30 minutes. Heat from the Bluegill Triple Prime shot, at an altitude of 50 kilometers (31 mi), was felt by personnel on the ground at Johnston Atoll, and this test caused retina burns to two personnel at ground zero who were not wearing their safety goggles.

Soviet high-altitude tests

The Soviets detonated four high-altitude tests in 1961 and three in 1962. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, both the US and the USSR detonated several high-altitude nuclear explosions as a form of saber-rattling. The Soviet tests were meant to demonstrate their anti-ballistic missile defenses which would supposedly protect their major cities in the event of a nuclear war.
The worst effects of a Soviet high-altitude test occurred on 22 October 1962, in the Soviet Project K nuclear tests (ABM System A proof tests) when a 300 kt missile-warhead detonated near Dzhezkazgan at 290-km altitude. The EMP fused 570 km of overhead telephone line with a measured current of 2,500 A, started a fire that burned down the Karaganda power plant, and shut down 1,000-km of shallow-buried power cables between Aqmola and Almaty.
The Partial Test Ban Treaty was passed the following year, ending atmospheric and exoatmospheric nuclear tests. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 banned the stationing and use of nuclear weapons in space. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty of 1996 prohibits all kinds of nuclear explosions; whether over- or underground, underwater or in the atmosphere.

List of high-altitude nuclear explosions

The debris fireball and aurora created by the Starfish Prime test, as seen from a KC-135 aircraft at 3 minutes.

The Starfish Prime flash as seen through heavy cloud cover from Honolulu, 1,300 km away.

USA – Hardtack I – Johnston Atoll, Pacific Ocean

• Yucca 28 April 1958, 1.7 kt, 26.2 km
• Teak, 1 August 1958, 3.8 Mt, 76.8 km
• Orange, 12 August 1958, 3.8 Mt, 43 km

USA – Argus – South Atlantic Ocean

• Argus I, 27 August 1958, 1.7 kt, 200 km
• Argus II, 30 August 1958, 1.7 kt, 240 km
• Argus III, 6 September 1958, 1.7 kt, 540 km (The highest known man made nuclear explosion)

USSR – 1961 tests – Kapustin Yar

• Test #88, 6 September 1961, 10.5 kt, 22.7 km
• Test #115, 6 October 1961, 40 kt, 41.3 km
• Test #127, 27 October 1961, 1.2 kt, 150 km
• Test #128, 27 October 1961, 1.2. kt, 300 km

USA – Dominic I – (Operation Fishbowl) – Johnson Atoll, Pacific Ocean

• Bluegill, 3 June 1962, failed
• Bluegill Prime, 25 July 1962, failed
• Bluegill Double Prime, 15 October 1962, failed
• Bluegill Triple Prime, 26 October 1962, 410 kt, 50 km
• Starfish, 20 June 1962, failed
• Starfish Prime, 9 July 1962, 1.4 Mt, 400 km (The largest man made nuclear explosion in outer space)
• Checkmate, 20 October 1962, 7 kt, 147 km
• Kingfish, 1 November 1962, 410 kt, 97 km

USSR – Soviet Project K nuclear tests – Kapustin Yar

• Test #184, 22 October 1962, 300 kt, 290 km
• Test #187, 28 October 1962, 300 kt, 150 km
• Test #195, 1 November 1962, 300 kt, 59 km

See also

• Operation Argus
• Operation Fishbowl
• Outer Space Treaty
• Partial Test Ban Treaty
• Project Highwater
• Soviet Project K nuclear tests

Calm solar cycle prompts questions about impact on Earth

By Jean-Louis Santini 6 hours ago

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Washington (AFP) - The surface of the sun has been surprisingly calm of late -- with fewer sunspots than anytime in in the last century -- prompting curious scientists to wonder just what it might mean here on Earth.

Related Stories

• Sun's Magnetic Field Will Flip Soon (Video) SPACE.com

Sunspots have been observed for millennia -- first by Chinese astronomers and then, for the first time with a telescope, by Galileo in 1610.
The sunspots appear in roughly 11-year cycles -- increasing to a daily flurry and then subsiding drastically, before amping up again.
But this cycle -- dubbed cycle 24 -- has surprised scientists with its sluggishness.
The number of spots counted since it kicked off in December 2008 is well below the average observed over the last 250 years. In fact, it's less than half.
"It is the weakest cycle the sun has been in for all the space age, for 50 years," National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association physicist Doug Biesecker told AFP.

The intense electromagnetic energy from sunspots has a significant impact on the sun's ultraviolet and X-ray emissions as well as on solar storms.
Solar storms can interrupt telecommunications and electronic networks on Earth. Sunspot activity can also have an impact on the Earth's climate.
Cycle 23 hit its maximum in April 2000 with an average of 120 solar spots a day. The cycle then wound down, hitting bottom around December 2008, the point at which scientists marked the start of the current cycle.
The minimal solar activity at the end of cycle 23 led astronomers to predict a slow cycle 24. But the reality fell even below expectations.
In the first year of the cycle, during which solar activity should have risen, astronomers counted 266 days without a single sun spot.

…

"The forecast peak was 90 sunspots," Biesecker said, noting that even though the activity has risen over the past year, "it's very clear it is not going to be close to 90."
"The sunspots number peaked last year at 67, almost half a typical cycle," he added.
The last time a sunspot cycle was this slow was in February 1906, the peak of cycle 14, with just 64 spots a day.
The "very long minimum: three years, three times more than the previous three cycles of the space age" was a major surprise, said University of Montana physicist Andres Munoz-Jamillio.
A magnetic switch

A picture taken from an aircraft shows the sun rising behind clouds at dawn above the suburbs of Ban …

 

Cycle 24 has also diverged from the norm in another surprising way.
Typically, around the end of each 11-year sunspot cycle, the sun's magnetic fields switch direction. The northern and southern hemispheres change polarity, usually simultaneously.
During the swap, the strength of the magnetic fields drops to near zero and reappears when the polarity is reversed, scientists explain.
But this time, something different seems to be happening. The north pole already reversed its polarity several months ago -- and so it's now the same polarity as the south pole.
According to the most recent satellite measurements, "the south hemisphere should flip on the near future," said Todd Hoeksema, director of the Wilcox Solar Observatory at Stanford University.
He didn't seem concerned about the phenomenon.
But scientists are watching the sun carefully to see whether cycle 24 is going to be an aberration -- or if this solar calmness is going to stretch through the next cycle as well.
"We won't know that for another good three or four years," said Biesecker.
Some researchers speculate this could be the start of a prolonged period of weak solar activity.
The last time that happened, during the so-called "Maunder Minimum" between 1650 and 1715, almost no sunspots were observed. During the same period, temperatures dropped sharply on Earth, sparking what is called the "Little Ice Age" in Europe and North America.
As the sunspot numbers continue to stay low, it's possible the Earth's climate is being affected again.
But thanks to global warming, we're unlikely to see another ice age. "Things have not started to cooling, they just have not risen as quickly," Biesecker said.

Sun Fires Solar Storm Directly at Earth

by Mike Wall, Senior Writer 14 hours ago Science, Social Science, & HumanitiesNASA

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View gallery

The SOHO LASCO C2 instrument captured this image of the Earth-directed coronal mass ejection or CME. …

The sun unleashed a powerful storm early Tuesday morning (Aug. 20), sending an enormous cloud of superheated particles rocketing toward Earth.

The solar eruption, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), occurred at 4:24 a.m. EDT (0824 GMT) Tuesday and blasted billions of tons of solar particles toward Earth at a mind-boggling speed of 2 million mph (3.3 million km/h).

"Experimental NASA research models, based on observations from NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, show that the CME left the sun at speeds of around 570 miles per second, which is a fairly typical speed for CMEs," NASA officials wrote in an update today. NASA's twin Stereo spacecraft and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, operated by NASA and the European Space Agency, captured photos of the solar storm from space.
The particles ejected by Earth-directed CMEs typically take two or three days to reach our planet, at which point they can trigger geomagnetic storms that can disrupt radio communications, GPS signals and power grids.
However, Tuesday's blast doesn't appear to have too much disruptive potential.

View gallery."

The SOHO LASCO C3 instrument captured this coronographic image of the Earth-directed CME. Notice how …

"In the past, geomagnetic storms caused by CMEs of this strength have usually been mild," NASA officials wrote.

CMEs that hit Earth can also ramp up the auroras, also known as the northern and southern lights. In fact, an enhanced auroral display may be on tap tonight and tomorrow for some skywatchers, thanks to a CME that erupted on Saturday (Aug. 17).
The cloud from this CME is not expected to slam directly into Earth, but our planet will likely cruise through the cloud's wake after it passes by, experts said.
"This could trigger polar geomagnetic storms despite the CME being off-target," the website SpaceWeather.com reported today. "High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras on August 20-21."
The sun is reaching the peak activity phase of its current 11-year cycle, which is known as Solar Cycle 24. Solar Cycle 24's maximum is shaping up to be the weakest of the last 100 years or so, scientists say, with relatively few powerful solar flares, CMEs and other big space weather events.
Editor's note: If you snap an amazing picture of the northern lights or any other night sky sight that you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, send photos, comments and your name and location to Managing Editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

Doomsday Fear: Could an EMP Throw World into Chaos?

By Douglas Main, Staff Writer 23 hours ago Science, Social Science, & HumanitiesNatureUnited StatesLiveScience

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A beautiful prominence eruption shot off the east limb (left side) of the sun on Monday, April 16, 2012. …

SOMEWHERE IN THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS — If a nuclear bomb went off in the high atmosphere over the United States, it could possibly take out the electrical grids over most of the country. Likewise, a huge solar flare could create widespread devastation by knocking out electricity, experts say.
One family is going to the extreme to prepare for such a contingency, building a castle here in the Carolina mountains where they could hole up without electricity and fend for themselves for months or years. The family is the subject of a new show on the National Geographic Channel called "Doomsday Castle," which premiers tonight (Aug. 13) at 10 o'clock ET.
But how likely is such a scenario?
The nuke scenario
It depends on whom you ask. One way to create a widespread and damaging electromagnetic pulse (EMP) would be to detonate a large nuclear weapon over the central United States, at an altitude of 25 miles to 500 miles (40 kilometers to 800 kilometers), according to the Commission to Assess the Threat to the U.S. from EMP Attack, in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee in July 2008. At this height, a nuclear blast could interact with the ionosphere, the shell of electrons and electrically charged particles surrounding Earth, to create a series of electromagnetic pulses that could reach across a continent, according to the commission. [Photos: Inside the Doomsday Castle]
Once a burst of atmospheric radiation hits the ground, it could induce strong currents in telephone and electrical cables, which can short out transformers, said Daniel Baker, a physicist at the University of Colorado. Transformers take high voltage current and "transform" it into low voltage current that can be used by households. But an EMP could derail this process, creating currents that overheat transformers and cause them to fail, Baker said.
Brent, the patriarch of the "Doomsday Castle" clan, thinks that terrorists or a rogue nation could loft a nuke high enough to take out the electricity grid over the eastern United States or Southeast, he told LiveScience. (Family members aren't disclosing their last name or location for fear of curious and/or hostile fans showing up on their castle steps.)
But such a nuclear attack would be nigh suicidal for any country, as the United States could retaliate with its nuclear submarines, which lurk in the oceans around the world out of the range of any EMP threat, according to the commission. It's also hard to imagine that a rogue terror group could accomplish such a feat, due the technical difficulty of the task. And in either case, the missile would have to make it into the middle of the country, eluding U.S. missile defenses, according to a fact sheet from the Department of Homeland Security.
Solar flares

View gallery."

The family behind the National Geographic Channel's "Doomsday Castle." From left to right: Brent II, …

 

An electromagnetic surge from a solar storm is a more likely threat for an EMP. Generally, experts expect a bad solar storm to reach Earth about once every century, Baker said. The last time one hit the planet was during the Carrington event, when particles from a powerful coronal mass ejection overloaded telegraph wires and set paper messages on fire in 1859. A coronal mass ejection is an enormous sun eruption of super-hot plasma that spews charged particles across the solar system.
At that time, the world was just beginning to use widespread electronic communications. Baker and his colleagues just submitted a paper that details a coronal mass ejection that took place in July 2012. In that event, some 80 billion pounds of energized particles were ejected from the sun at a speed of several million miles per hour. Luckily it missed Earth. But if it had occurred one week earlier, it would have been aimed directly toward our planet — with catastrophic results. [The Worst Solar Storms in History]
"Given our current state of readiness, we'd still be picking up the pieces," Baker said.
Bad solar storms work by sending "blobs" of energized particles toward the Earth, carrying their own magnetic field, Baker said. This missile-like group of particles can "open a gate" in Earth's magnetic field, allowing energetic particles to enter the high atmosphere and send currents all the way down to the planet's surface, he said. These can induce currents in the electrical grid, overheating transformers and causing them to fail. And these things can take months or years to replace. "You can't exactly buy another at Sears," Baker said.
Preparation and protection
There are ways to protect against an EMP attack or a solar storm, although they involve coating certain electrical parts and allowing electrical current to be routed around transformers, Baker said — steps that would be expensive, he said. Installing extra transmission lines and generators could help divert power around vulnerable nodes in the grid, he added.
One way to protect devices is to encase them in Faraday cages, wherein a shell of conductive material prevents them from experiencing external electromagnetic currents. The military protects some of its most important facilities this way, Brent said.
While some preppers take things a little far, both an EMP attack and control mass ejection are "genuine concerns," Baker said. "I don't think taking preparations for both is unwarranted" by governments and individuals, he said. Governments can prepare by looking at how to better secure the electrical grid, Baker said. Some reasonable preparations individuals can take involve keeping enough food and water to last a week or more, he added.

Shields up! Scientists work to produce 'Star Trek' deflector device

By Dave Gilbert, CNN

July 2, 2013 -- Updated 1639 GMT (0039 HKT)

The deflector shield is aimed at protecting spaceship occupants from harmful radiation given off by the Sun.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NASA's Curiosity mission to Mars revealed that astronauts on a round-trip would face high radiation levels
• Scientists at the UK's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory are working on a radiation shield for astronauts
• A model has been tested inside a fusion reactor which produces a plasma like that of the solar wind
• The team are hoping to test their concept in space in the next five years

London (CNN) -- You've answered the call for volunteers, signed up for the Mars trip and you are looking forward to boldly going to space, the final frontier, to explore a strange new world.

But wait. Recent evidence from NASA's Curiosity rover mission to the Red Planet has revealed that astronauts on the round-trip would be exposed to high levels of radiation from cosmic rays and high-energy particles from the sun contained in solar storms. NASA says a Mars voyager would receive a radiation dose around 100 times the average yearly exposure on Earth.

Along with all the other risks of spaceflight, this would clearly be bad for your health -- and it is proving difficult to find a solution.

Eddie Semones, a radiation health expert at NASA's Johnson Space Flight Center, told CNN that shielding to completely block the radiation danger would have to be "meters thick" and too heavy to be used aboard a spacecraft.

A model with the mini-magnetosphere shield is tested in a plasma stream.

In contrast, with the release of the Star Trek movie "Into Darkness," science fiction fans have once again got used to the ease with which Captain Kirk gives the order for "shields up" and the crew of the Enterprise being protected instantly from the hostility of space.

Perhaps though, a real Star Trek shield may no longer be science fiction -- scientists at the UK's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) certainly think so.

Radiation 'potential showstopper'

They have been testing a lightweight system to protect astronauts and spacecraft components from harmful radiation and working with colleagues in America to design a concept spaceship called Discovery that could take astronauts to the Moon or Mars.

"Star Trek has great ideas -- they just don't have to build it," said Ruth Bamford, lead researcher for the deflector shield project at RAL.

"The radiation problem is a potential showstopper. I'm very concerned that the radiation issue is not being addressed very publicly and it's absolutely key.

"Even if astronauts are sick for 3-4 days, it could still threaten the mission because the whole crew are affected -- and vomiting and diarrhea in space is no joke. It could also potentially lead to organ failure," said Bamford.

The RAL plan is to create an environment around the spacecraft that mimics the Earth's magnetic field and recreates the protection we enjoy on the ground -- they call it a mini magnetosphere.

Even if astronauts are sick for 3-4 days, it could still threaten the mission because the whole crew are affected -- and vomiting and diarrhea in space is no joke.
Space scientist, Ruth Bamford

"On Earth, mostly we're protected by the atmosphere but ultimately what the Earth's magnetic field is doing is forming a first line of protection for life," explained Bamford.

"The concept behind what we're suggesting is due to the evolution in our understanding of plasmas. What we discovered is that if you put a magnetic field around an object in a flowing plasma, the electrons, which are very light, will follow the new magnetic field that you've put there but the ions, the very fast ions, will overshoot -- they won't follow the magnetic field lines.

"You end up with a constant electric field that can be enough that it actually refracts or deflects enough of the radiation from inside the magnetic cavity that you've formed to protect the astronauts ... enough like the Earth that they can survive."

The mini-magnetosphere concept has also been proposed by a team at the University of Washington in the United States as a way of harnessing the solar wind to create a propulsion system.

Other shielding ideas are also being explored. The Inspiration Mars Foundation that is committed to sending a crew to Mars has proposed lining the spacecraft's walls with water, food and even human waste to help protect the astronauts.

Early results 'pleasing'

New Scientist magazine recently reported that the "hydrocarbons in excrement and food are good candidates for radiation shielding."

It added: "NASA's Water Walls project uses a similar concept, but Inspiration must make it work for real."

As a child, Bamford was inspired to explore a scientific career by the Apollo moon landings and is a fan of the Star Trek series. She believes the concepts explored in the science fiction films are a useful shorthand for scientists when trying to explain their work.

The RAL deflector shield she has helped to develop has been tested on a model inside a fusion reactor which produces a plasma like that of the solar wind. Bamford said they were delighted with the results.

The RAL team now hope the project can be scaled up and fly on a real craft. "First we need a technology demonstrator in space in, say, five years," said Bamford. "That's quite realistic for a dedicated, small, unmanned spacecraft.

"I'm sure our idea will work. It does work. There are a number of improvements to make it work better though -- perhaps we should call down to Scotty."