Government wakes up to EMP threat

by Steve Elwart Email  

After several delays and repeatedly ignored warnings, the federal government is starting to recognize the threat posed to national security by an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, event.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, has begun taking steps to protect the nation’s power grid from at least the natural version of an EMP by proposing new regulation standards addressing the impacts of a geomagnetic disturbance, or GMD…..The largest solar storm measured to date was the solar storm of 1859, also known as the Carrington Event, which was observed and recorded by Richard C. Carrington.

From Aug. 28 until Sept. 2, 1859, numerous sunspots and solar flares were observed on the sun. This solar storm generated a stream of electrically charged particles that headed directly for Earth. The particles were traveling at disturbingly fast speeds. Observed by the British astronomer Richard Carrington, the particles made it to Earth in just 17 hours, a journey that normally took three to four days.

The resulting geomagnetic storm caused aurorae to be seen around the world, even over the Caribbean. The light generated from the storm over the Rocky Mountains was so bright that it woke up gold miners, who began making breakfast, thinking it was morning.    To Read More….