From: Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de
Date: Sun Jan 14 2001 - 06:06:03 MST
I recall recently reading a warning about naturally occuring EMP,
where monster flareups of the galactic center produce bursts of
charged radiation, which, when rapidly deccelerated, can produce
giant world-wide EMP.
Since the amplitude of this natural EMP may eclipse NEMP by far, and
our current electronics is a) unhardened b) hasn't seen any natural
background variations of more than a few decades I'm interested in
learning more on the matter. Can we see traces of the distant flareups?
(We're interested in just few kYr windows here, so it's not out of
question). If there's a lot of energy, old objects on the periphery
of the solar system might see thermal effects on the surface (glazing,
implanting). Maybe historical mentions of *really* spectacular aurora
activities? People shocked when touching large metal objects?
If we see a biggie every few 100 years, or even a kiloyear, we might
be unwittedly sailing into big trouble. All hitech gear but military
would be toast.
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