From EOS, Vol. 93, No. 25, 19 June 2012
White House and Agencies Focus on Space Weather Concerns
“Space weather is a serious matter that can affect human economies around the world,” Tamara Dickinson, a senior policy analyst with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), told attendees at the 2012 Space Weather Enterprise Forum, held 5 June in Washington, D. C. With the 2013 solar maximum nearing, researchers and government agencies are focusing on how the greater solar activity could affect our increasingly technological society and what measures can be taken to help prevent or mitigate any threats to the electricity grid, GPS, and other potentially vulnerable technologies.
Dickenson said that there has been an increased awareness about space weather in the White House and that President Barack Obama recently has requested briefing memos on the topic. She highlighted several efforts the administration is taking related to space weather, including a forthcoming national Earth observation strategy, which could be released in July and will include an assessment of space weather. She explained that the strategy document will be part of the fiscal year 2014 presidential budget request and that it will be updated every 3 years.
Dickinson added that the administration also is acting on earlier federal interagency recommendations to ready the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) mission for launch in 2014 as a near-term risk reduction measure to provide space weather data; there is concern about the continued healthy operation of the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE), which has gone well beyond its expected mission life.
Earlier this year, Obama directed OSTP and the national security staff “to aggressively move forward with space weather mitigation efforts,” Dickinson said. Based on the president’s direction, she restructured OSTP’s Geomagnetic Interagency Working Group. “We are focusing on achievable, strategic implementation actions, at least initially focused on the [electricity] grid,” she said. Dickinson noted that she has included additional federal agencies in the working group. However, she also said that OSTP itself now has only one staff member working on space weather. With the departure of two OSTP staff in March, “it was determined that OSTP should consolidate all the space weather activities under one person,” she said.
Full story here
“We are focusing on achievable, strategic implementation actions, at least initially focused on the [electricity] grid,”
Loud empty bureaucratic jargon from the people who terminated the US ability to go into space! And as for the US electricity grid, it has more to fear from Obama’s alternative schemes than from the activities of the sun.
You foolish persons.
Do you not understand it is only necessary for our great political masters to pass a law in order to make the Sun behave.
And naturally to set up very well renumerated committees to ensure the Sun does what it is told. By Them.
All paid for by You.
So be grateful. Very grateful.
Kindest Regards
alan says:
June 16, 2012 at 6:03 am
“We are focusing on achievable, strategic implementation actions, at least initially focused on the [electricity] grid,”
Loud empty bureaucratic jargon from the people who terminated the US ability to go into space!
On the positive side, since Obie changed NASA’s mission from exploring space to making the Muslim world feel good about itself and since NASA no longer has the capability to launch replacement GPS satellites, we can kill two birds with one stone (that’s not a death threat) by outsourcing the launches to, say, Yemen…
Link to program of the recent meeting:
http://www.ofcm.gov/swef/2012/index-swef2012.htm
Tamara Dickinson’s luncheon address contains humor (slides 4 & 5) [& 3 photos of the transit of Venus on page 3] and information about the government agencies involved via OSTP.
I’m shocked, but glad, people are actively addressing this potential catastrophy. It is far more potent and real than AGW. The societies of the developed world are totally dependant upon our satellites and wireless communication systems. A major CME could knock out several to many satellites and disrupt/destroy power grids. It would send the US back to the 1700’s with only 10% of our population capable of coping with the loss of our economic systems. A major CME has knocked out our power grids before, long before we bacame so dependent upon silicon technology. I hope we have the time to put preventative systems into place before a really big CME can send the human race back 300 years. Chaos, death and destruction would be unimaginable, even for Hollywood screne writers.
I’m not generally a pessimest, but this potential threat scares me!
Bill
Gee, do you think this new space weather budget will include funding to study the effects of decreasing sunspots impact on Galactic Cosmic Rays hitting Earth and the subsequent increase of cloud cover, albedo and global cooling as postulated by the Svensmark Effect?…
Hmmmm… Methinks perhaps not….LOL!
I keep hearing that a major CME could take out the electric grid and that it could last for a long time because replacement transformers would not be available without very long lead times. It would make sense to me that the long lead time items should be manufactured and stationed in strategic locations to mitigate the down time. As I understand it, it is more of a matter of when rather than a matter of if.
What does this have to do with enlightening the Moslem world?
This is the science that GISS should be doing, not terrestrial climate. Hopefully one day Congress will force that issue, retire Hansen, and direct GISS to study space, or be de-funded.
“Space weather is a serious matter that can affect human economies around the world”
Are there other forms of economy other than ‘human’. Weird stuff
Note to all government grant writers: The AGW meme is out. The ASW meme is in.
A black hole has appeared in space! The space weather commitee are looking into it! (or does a black hole dissapear in space?)
John Collins: ” It would make sense to me that the long lead time items should be manufactured and stationed in strategic locations to mitigate the down time.”
So, a Strategic Transformer Reserve? Or else, let power companies build up a stock of transformers (they already know that’s a good idea due to smaller natural emergencies and purchasing market forces) and encourage them to pay a little extra to manufacturers who invest in extra equipment capacity.
ShrNfr says:
June 16, 2012 at 5:54 am
I would be careful about this one. My lack of trust in the past several administrations has come to a crescendo in this one. This could easily transform into regulations that you have smart meters, power rationing, and all the rest of the “green” agenda. While it is important that we have a robust power infrastructure, I suspect that this is but another foot in the door to open it for other political ends.
________________________
Exactly. You are not alone in your mistrust, which is obvious in conversations and around the web. The question is: is ‘someone’ figuring all the angles and has a plan for the usurpation of power- no matter which way things turn- and may in fact be actively working to drive the mistrust to a boiling point?
My first thought when they installed my ‘smart meter” was, ‘how well will this withstand EMPs, etc’.
Hail, fellow traveller! You must be one of the 10% who survived what we now call “The Y2K Bug”.
But, seriously: it’s not that we should ignore the possibility, but there are already myriads of backup generators in the US. So you’ll be able to go to a hospital, emergency broadcasts will go out, & Arby’s will still be serving. The only people who will be SOL are the dips in Cah-lee-for-nee-ah who actually depend on the high-tension lines, since they have so little generation capacity within the state.
I may be going into my survivalist mode with this post to be warned! I’ve been looking (as an amateur) into CME’s and such for a while, since the Sun is changing so much. Here are a couple of points I’m pondering.
1. It’s my understanding that in a CME event like in 1859, all microprocessors would be toast. In Europe, the United States and developed Asia this would, as a poster above stated, shove us back to the 17 or 18 hundreds anyway. Satellites, the power grid, communications of all forms, manufacturing, food production, transportation (ground, air, sea and rail) would be shut down completely and for an extended period. Perhaps even our ability to make war would degenerate into clubs, bows and arrows and maybe rifles and pistols. Just having a surge supressor on your computer won’t protect against such an event.
2. In 1859 the big CME stopped telegraph communication for a few days or hours. Those lines were arial in nature, and directly exposed to the magnetic flux. These days most plant is buried whether glass (fiber optics) or copper. Would that mitigate the effects of a CME to some extent? I understand the electronics at the end would be fried and useless.
3. How much “hardening” would it take to protect equipment in a similar event?
4. In the case of rail transport, how long would it take say the USA to reverse engineer a steam engine or get enough old examples working to at least start the tranport industry going.
5. How can I design a harness for my three cats to pull a small wagon. (SARC!)
I’m interested in what others think here…as I said, communications I understand – physics and such not so much…
Mike
Just an add-on to my post above. If my understanding is correct (fried microprocessors) then almost everything we depend on will become inoperable. The chips are not just in computers, they are in manufacturing milling machines, the engine of your car or truck, in the railway engines, even the portable alternators (generators) usually have some form of processor in them. On the farm, an old Fordson tractor will probably work, but the modern one may as well be a boat anchor because it will not start or run.
When there is a Carrington Event we will have several days warning. If power companies disconnected the transformers singlely or in groups from the grid, would they not be protected? I assume the disconnecting part of the plan is very difficult and would leave everyone in the USA on generator power. 1700s practice for several weeks but not for years.
Kelvin Vaughan says: June 16, 2012 at 8:13 am
A black hole has appeared in space! The space weather commitee are looking into it! (or does a black hole dissapear in space?)
The black hole is where trillions of dollars of taxpayer money have disappeared.
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. ” H.L. Mencken
Is this the new Y2K?
Rich Lambert says:
June 16, 2012 at 10:09 am
Is this the new Y2K?
Unfortunately not. This is real. Of course, the alarms are always a bit overblown, but there is a real issue here.
a jones said:
June 16, 2012 at 6:44 am
Do you not understand it is only necessary for our great political masters to pass a law in order to make the Sun behave.
———————————————–
Aye! obama need only issue an edict regulating sunspots and solar flares 😉
It is just small steps from a politician to go from Global Warming to Universal Warming…but a huge step for our wallets.
“White House gets serious about space weather”
Sounds par. Now they want to weasel their way in and control the national electric grid from the White House. Sadly, I voted for the man, but right now I just want him to keep his hands off this country. You think this is for the government to help the electic companies finance backup transformers or high-speed trips in case of a pulse? I seriously doubt it. That would be a simple one-time expense. No, everything I can see is they want to weaken and disassemble the grid and this is a smooth talking way talk to get their feet into all utility companies and jack the pricesfor our kids, not lowering them.
Wayne, you’re not the only person feeling ‘buyer’s remorse’.
I really though we’d get stronger as a country and more together as people.
Was I as sap or what?
I was in a group in the ’60s. We played an event in DC for the VP’s War on Poverty.
Don’t look like that worked out too well either.