Hacker News Reader

Comment by jurjenh | Hacker News Reader

And you would have to write, unless there is significantly more tolerance in our digital network!

With large solar flares there have been reports of telegraph wires having such large currents induced that the telegraph paper caught on fire from the sparks generated! [1]

Just imagine what these currents would do to modern sensitive electronics... And I suspect that there hasn't been that much thorough testing in consumer-level hardware, although power and communication companies are very aware of the problems and have changed the designs of some systems to handle these events better (as in "let's not melt the power grid quite as bad...")

[1] http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/06...

View on HN

"The northern lights were unusual enough but then worldwide telegraph systems started going out. Telegraph operators were being shocked unconscious and the flying sparks from the telegraph machines were setting the papers and their machines on fire. When the telegraph operators disconnected their machines from the batteries, there were still sparks flying. This is because the power of solar flares induced electricity into the lines that carried the telegraph signals from one telegraph station to the next. This became known as the Carrington Event."

http://factoidz.com/could-another-carrington-event-destroy-o...

http://www.overcomingbias.com/2009/06/space-storm-insurance....

Kinda puts me off sitting here with my headphones on...

Early telegraphs didn't use a ground wire, the return path was literally the Earth. Modern systems with differential signals on a twisted pair are many orders of magnitude less affected.

I wouldn't think that most sensitive electronics is big enough to really be affected, you need a closed circuit that encloses a significant area. For the telegraph (and modern electrical grid) that would be the height that the wires are strung at times the length of the wires. Anything that fits in your home is probably safe, unless your network cables have shielding that's grounded at both ends with no series resistance or something.

The electrical disturbances don't need to be introduced into the electronics directly though - if the flare induced enough disturbance into the national grid, then all sorts of strange induced currents could appear on your mains voltage, and wreak havoc with inadequately filtered power supplies.

We rely on mains power to arrive at a nice even 50-60Hz, with the voltage varying a few percent. Sensitive electronics are designed to filter out this low frequency, but higher frequencies may well pass through into other circuits that weren't designed for it, with unknown consequences.

It'd likely fry transformers before they started detonating things in your home, though. The induced current on the path from the transformer to your house couldn't be that big.

Still, it's an interesting thought. With how fragile the power infrastructure is in North America, it could cause some serious problems.

In 1989 the Quebec province power grid was brought down for some hours following important solar activity. Like you said for consumers it was simply a black out. As for the power infrastructure I think they made important changes to make it more resistant (in Quebec), but I don't have more details.

What about optical technology? Would that be affected?

(yes, I know currently there is always at some electronical parts, but I mean in theory)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com