WEBVTT - GMDs and EMPs 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:12.360 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:15.560 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:18.360 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:21.520 tech are you So? Back in May twenty twenty four, 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:26.880 a massive geomagnetic storm created aurora across much of the 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:30.080 contiguous United States. Even folks in my home state of 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:33.440 Georgia were able to see the northern lights. Sadly that 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:36.639 doesn't include me. I missed out on it, but I've 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:39.600 seen photos and videos of the night sky from that time, 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:42.640 and the colors are pretty darn spectacular. But while folks 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:45.640 were ewing and aweing over the chromatic display in the sky, 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:49.000 others were monitoring large systems like the power grid, because 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:53.080 geomagnetic phenomena has the potential to wreak havoc with stuff 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:57.000 like power lines and more. So, today I thought we 0:00:57.120 --> 0:01:01.840 would talk about, you know, geomagnetic services or gmds, and 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:06.480 electromagnetic pulses or EMPs, and what happens if there's a 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:11.040 big enough zap applied to a region of the Earth. Now, 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:13.080 to get into this, we need to go back to 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:18.960 some basic earth science stuff. Our planet has a magnetic field, which, 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:22.680 through interaction with the solar wind, which is all this 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:28.000 stuff that's ejected by the Sun, will become a magnetosphere. 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:30.479 But let's take this step by step. So, first off, 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:35.720 Earth's magnetosphere is the strongest of all the rocky planets 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:38.720 in our Solar system. At the core of our planet 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:42.840 is a solid inner core that's made up of iron 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:46.480 and nickel metals, and they're hot. They're like they're real hot, 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:50.120 like surface of the Sun hot. And surrounding the solid 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:53.640 inner core is a liquid outer core. So the Earth's 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:56.720 core is kind of like a gusher turned inside out, 0:01:56.920 --> 0:02:00.360 except it's a gusher made of super hot iron and 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:03.960 it probably wouldn't taste very good anyway. The outer core 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:07.720 of molten iron and nickel swirls around this solid core, 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:11.160 primarily due to heat from the inner core, kind of 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:15.120 making things move around through convection and the Earth's rotation. 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:20.840 So this churning molten goodness generates electrical currents. And these 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:23.960 currents are huge. They can stretch hundreds of miles across. 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:26.919 And as I'm sure you all know, there's a relationship 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:30.640 between electrical currents and magnetic fields. In fact, a lot 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:35.320 of our technology leverages this relationship, from dynamos to transformers 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:37.800 to lots of other stuff. So the result is the 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:41.639 Earth is like a giant magnet. This is why accompasses 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:45.240 needle points the way it does. The needle aligns itself 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:48.880 with the magnetic field of the Earth. Now that magnetic 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:53.280 field is really complicated, and it's constantly in flux, though 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:56.520 not always on a scale that we puny humans can perceive. 0:02:56.919 --> 0:02:59.960 But we can kind of oversimplify this and say that 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:02.640 from space, if you were able to see the Earth's 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:05.320 magnetic field, and if we didn't have that pesky sun 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:07.480 coming into play, it would kind of look like the 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:10.560 Earth was a lot like a bar magnet. You would 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:13.880 see these magnetic lines emanating from the south magnetic pole, 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.560 looping around to the other side of the Earth, and 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:20.120 going back in through the north magnetic pole. These poles 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:24.160 aren't lined up with the ends of Earth's axis. Those 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:27.280 ends would actually be the true North and true South poles. 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:30.200 If the Earth were rotating around a stick, these would 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:33.160 be the two ends of that stick. But just note 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:36.240 that the Earth is not actually rotating around a stick. 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:40.440 Magnetic North is not in the same spot as true North. 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:43.200 In fact, magnetic north isn't always in the same spot 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.840 at all. It drifts over time. On average, the Earth's 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:51.280 magnetic poles flip every half million years or so. The 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:54.000 actual timing is random, so we can't just look at 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:57.080 a calendar and say, huh, and Thursday, in two thousand years, 0:03:57.120 --> 0:03:58.520 the north pole is going to be on the south 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:01.880 end of the planet. The general hypothesis is that the 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:05.640 process of polarity reversal is well, let's call it gradual. 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:10.320 It can last like ten thousand years, not that anyone 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:12.480 in human history has actually observed this. We base our 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:15.400 understanding off of lots and lots of science, with the 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:21.159 most recent polarity reversal happening seven hundred eighty thousand years ago, 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:24.880 which you know, statistically means we're overdue, but there's no 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:27.880 reason to believe that's gonna happen anytime soon. But the 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:31.400 polls have swapped positions like one hundred and eighty three 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:35.360 times over the last eighty three million years. Now. There's 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:38.200 a whole bunch of fringe theories about pole reversals that 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:41.240 don't have much, if any scientific evidence to support them. 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:43.000 So we're not going to dive into any of that, 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:46.159 I'll just say that if this episode sparks your interest 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:49.200 in magnetic fields, make sure to employ your critical thinking 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:52.039 and look for good sources when you look into it further, 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:54.960 because there's tons of, like I said, fringe theories and 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:58.520 misinformation about this stuff, where you're gonna hear all sorts 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:03.120 of crazy ideas about polarity reversal that's not really grounded 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:06.960 in science. Also, if this episode interests you in the 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:10.360 band that's named the Magnetic Fields, that's awesome because I 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:14.440 love that band. Okay, So the geodetic poles, as in 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:17.400 the true North and South poles, they also don't stay 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:19.960 in the same spot either, because the rotation of the 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:23.080 Earth isn't a perfect spin. It's a little bit wobbly, 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:27.000 kind of like how a toy tops spin starts to 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:29.760 slow down. You'll see it begin to wobble before it 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:33.279 falls over. But the poles don't wander by a lot. 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:35.840 We're talking less than a foot of migration in a year. 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:38.640 But I figured I should mention that before any well 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:42.080 actually start to roll in with me talking about magnetic 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:46.719 North moving and geodetic North not moving. It does move, 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:49.520 just not very much. All Right, back to science. So 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:52.880 we've got this magnetic field of the Earth. So what's 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:54.839 the big deal. Well, for us, the big deal is 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:57.760 that this magnetic field serves as a kind of force 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:01.640 field for certain types of charged articles and energies. And 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:04.159 I think an argument can be made that because of 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:07.719 our magnetic field, conditions were pretty darn good for life 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:10.400 to form on this planet. Actually, when you look at 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:13.120 Earth and you look at all the different factors that 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:17.240 have helped contribute to life having a place to have 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:20.880 a foothold, it's pretty phenomenal. We're the right distance from 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:23.200 our Sun so that we can get the energy we 0:06:23.279 --> 0:06:25.960 need for life. We're not too close where the Sun 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:29.000 would burn off everything, or too far where we wouldn't 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.919 get enough energy. We also have these larger planets in 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:34.960 the outer Solar systems, some of which have over time 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:41.160 blocked or potentially blocked perhaps Earth destroying asteroids on their 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:43.960 way in. Like it's almost like we've got bouncers in 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:46.800 our solar system that protect us. So there are a 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:50.279 lot of different factors at play. Our atmosphere is another one, 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:53.200 but the magnetosphere plays a big part in this too. 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:56.799 So without our magnetic field, we might not be here. 0:06:57.080 --> 0:06:58.960 If we didn't have the magnetic field, at the very least, 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:01.520 I could say we would have few video streaming services. 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:05.000 Of course, our atmosphere does help protect us from stuff too. 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:09.800 The magnetic field also protects our atmosphere. The magnetic field 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:13.320 kind of protects us from stuff like electrons and protons 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:15.800 that have been fired off from the Sun, as well 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:19.600 as cosmic rays from deep within the galaxy. A flow 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:22.880 of charged particles and energy from the Sun called the 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:25.840 solar wind, could really do damage to the Earth if 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:28.720 it weren't for this magnetic field. So, for example, that 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:32.000 atmosphere that you and I enjoy that could be stripped 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:34.680 away by the solar wind if it weren't for the 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:37.880 magnetic field keeping the wind at bay. That might be 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:41.360 what happened to Mars. The red planet does have a 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:45.920 magnetic field, but it is far less powerful than Earth's. 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:49.160 It's a very weak magnetic field. So there's this hypothesis 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:51.880 that the solar wind has, over the course of billions 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:55.640 of years, stripped away much of Mars's atmosphere and left 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:59.320 it with a very very thin atmosphere. Our magnetic force 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:04.000 field isn't like a solid wall, however, it's flexible, so 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:07.160 the solar wind pushes against it, and this means that 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:10.520 the field gets shaped into what we call the magnetosphere. 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:14.280 The solar wind pushes against the day side of Earth's 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:17.440 magnetic field and smushes it a bit. On the night 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:21.520 side of Earth, the magnetic field trails back with a 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:24.120 long tail. Some people have actually compared it to being 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:27.520 kind of comet shaped, and the night side would be 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:31.360 the tail side of the comet. So on the day side, 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:35.640 the magnetic field is confined to around ten Earth radii 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:38.920 from the center of the Earth, so the Earth radius 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:42.560 is nearly four thousand miles. So you do the math, 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:45.199 it means the magnetosphere on the day side stretches out 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:47.959 a little less than forty thousand miles from the core 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:51.280 of the Earth most of the time. Anyway, the night 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:55.400 side stretches out hundreds of Earth radii, and that means 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:59.000 that the magnetosphere actually goes out beyond where the Moon's 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:03.120 orbit is. Moon's orbits that are around sixty Earth radii. So 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:05.920 on the day side of Earth, there's this boundary between 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:08.800 the magnetic field and the solar wind that's called the 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:12.520 magneto pause. This is really the force field thing I 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:16.160 was talking about. Much of it as charged particles that 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:18.880 were coming our way, and then they collect in one 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:23.360 of two zones called radiation belts. Specifically, they're called the 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:28.320 Van Allen radiation belts. They're named after James Van Allen. 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:33.000 These zones have, as the name suggests, energetic particles in them, 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:36.480 and these particles can pose a challenge for us that 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:39.640 scientists and engineers have to take into account when they 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:43.320 design satellites because the charged particles can really mess with 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:47.120 electronic systems. The doses of radiation are low enough so 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:50.080 that they pose no real serious risk to human health, 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:53.280 which is good because we have sent astronauts through them. 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:57.320 So it's a good thing that the radiation isn't at like, 0:09:57.559 --> 0:09:59.959 you know, a harmful level as far as our actual 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:04.400 will direct health is concerned. This magnetopause force field is 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:09.560 pliable and it's not impenetrable. Sometimes stuff gets through it. 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:13.640 The Sun is constantly blasting out charged particles and such, 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:17.679 and sometimes during particularly active solar events, the Sun might 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:20.080 shoot a bunch of stuff our way during what's called 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:24.120 a coronal mass ejection. That's what happened back in May 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:27.080 of twenty twenty four. The sun pooped out a whole 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:30.640 series of CMEs toward Earth, and the National Oceanic and 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:35.160 Atmospheric Administration or NOAH, alerted folks to it on May tenth, 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:41.480 twenty twenty four. Initially, NOAH graded this geomagnetic storm as 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:45.040 a G four on its weather scale. G four is 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:49.600 a severe geomagnetic storm, but the agency would later upgrade 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:51.840 this to a G five, which is the highest on 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:54.240 the scale it goes from one to five. Five is 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:58.440 an extreme geomagnetic storm. The severity of a storm is 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:01.240 part of what determines what, if any effect the storm 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:03.920 is going to have with us here on Earth. The 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:08.599 Aurora are one such effect. We can see this beautiful 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:11.880 display of colors in the night sky when the magnetic 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:14.960 field is reacting this way. But the storm can also 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:19.760 interfere with our power systems, our radio broadcasts, satellite navigations, 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:23.839 spacecraft operation, and more. And again this gets us into 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:28.520 the connection between electrical and magnetic activity. A strong geomagnetic 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:32.680 storm can push the magnetosphere around and magnetic lines get 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:37.000 metaphorically entangled and twisted, and this in turn creates magnetic 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:40.760 disturbances here on Earth. Another thing that happens is the 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:44.400 storms can affect the density and distribution of density of 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:49.120 the Earth's upper atmosphere. That includes the thermosphere, which is 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:53.640 where lower orbit satellites are. They're in the thermosphere. There 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:58.280 are thousands of satellites in Earth's atmosphere. Technically, the thermosphere 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:03.280 is the penultimate layer above it's above the mesosphere as 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:06.200 below the exosphere, which is the final layer of the 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:09.680 Earth's atmosphere. The temperature of the thermosphere actually goes up 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:12.080 as you climb in height. We often think of air 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.560 getting colder as you go higher in altitude. That's true 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:18.160 for the troposphere. That's the part of the atmosphere where 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:22.320 we live. It's our atmosphere where you spend all your time, 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:26.800 assuming you're not an astronaut. But it's also true that 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:29.120 that trend of when you go higher in altitude the 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:32.720 temperature gets colder. That's also in the mesosphere. However, the 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:35.800 stratosphere and the thermosphere are both different. As you go 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:39.079 higher in both the stratosphere and the thermosphere, the temperatures 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:44.319 get warmer. It's funny because it's troposphere, then stratosphere, then mesosphere, 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:49.240 than thermosphere, so it goes cold hot cold hot. Essentially, 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:52.120 what's happening is in the stratosphere and the thermosphere. As 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:55.439 you're climbing in altitude, you're encountering atmosphere that has absorbed 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:58.560 more radiation from the Sun, including stuff like X ray 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:02.800 radiation and ultraviolet radiation, and thus it is warmer than 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:05.480 areas below. Okay, we're going to talk some more science 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:08.040 stuff and then we'll start talking about how these things 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:11.240 affect us here on Earth. But first, before we do that, 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:23.680 let's take a quick break to thank our sponsors. Okay, 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:26.480 So I was talking about the thermosphere and how as 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:30.720 you climb the thermosphere the temperature actually increases. The thermosphere 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:33.559 is also where the ionosphere is. This is a zone 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:36.520 where the energy from the Sun is strong enough to 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:41.040 eject electrons off of atoms, which turns them into ions. 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:44.520 Right Like, So, if you have an atom and you're 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:47.679 able to blast it with enough energy, you can cause 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:51.040 it to push out an electron and now it will 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.400 be positively charged, right, You'll have more protons than electrons. 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:58.640 Protons are positively charged, electrons are negatively charged. Overall, your 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:02.760 ion has a positive char So that happens in the ionosphere. 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:04.520 This is also the part of our atmosphere that can 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:07.400 reflect certain radio waves, which makes it possible to beam 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:11.280 shortwave radio broad casts across the world, particularly at night. 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:14.400 It works really well at night time anyway. By shifting 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:18.520 the density and the density distribution of the thermosphere, a 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:23.520 geomagnetic storm can create conditions that affect spacecraft passing through 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:27.640 those regions. So if you're passing through a denser region 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:31.120 of atmosphere, that's going to mean that you're encountering a 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:35.400 greater amount of drag on your spacecraft. It slows down 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:38.240 the spacecraft. So for a satellite, this could mean that 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:40.720 engineers will have to make adjustments so that the satellite 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:44.240 will continue to operate properly because it wouldn't be in 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:47.120 the position it thinks it should be due to the 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:50.760 fact that there's drags slowing it down. Or if a 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:54.560 satellite slows down enough, well, its orbit can start to 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:59.160 decay right because it's not going fast enough to maintain 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:01.960 that orbit, and eventually it's going to meet a fiery 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:05.440 end as it plunges toward Earth. So these are things 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:09.000 that engineers and scientists have to account for. These changes 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:12.400 can also affect how radio waves travel through the atmosphere, 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:15.960 which means stuff like positioning information from GPS and other 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:20.560 navigational systems can have errors and become unreliable. You know, 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:23.520 we take it for granted when we pull up a 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:27.720 GPS tool that we know exactly where we are, but 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:30.920 if they're outside factors that are affecting the satellites, the 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:33.960 information we have is not going to be accurate and 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:36.640 it may end up being that, you know, the GPS 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:38.680 tells us we're in a totally different spot than where 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:42.920 we actually are. Beyond that, the actual surfaces of spacecraft 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:46.800 can build up electrical charges due to these geomagnetic storms, 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:51.200 and that also can cause malfunctions. The extreme magnetic activity 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:54.800 can also induce current in electrical systems and overload them, 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:57.400 so you can get a system to essentially get fried. 0:15:57.440 --> 0:15:59.680 It's kind of like if a power surge were to 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.720 fry a computer you have plugged into the wall. Like 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:05.000 if you don't have your computer plugged into a surge 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:08.400 protector and there's a power surge, yeah, your computer can 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:12.560 be toasted. Well, a geomagnetic storm can do that same 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:17.480 sort of thing by inducing a strong electric charge within 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:21.120 the computer system or within the circuitry that your computer 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:24.120 system is plugged into. Now that last one, as I said, 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:27.120 doesn't just impact spacecraft in orbit. I mean, spacecraft are 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:31.200 particularly vulnerable to this, but a strong enough geomagnetic storm 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:34.880 can actually affect large electrical systems here on Earth as well. Now, 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:39.720 for the most part, we're talking about big systems, right, Like, 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:43.040 most geomagnetic storms are not going to be powerful enough 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:47.920 to affect relatively tiny electronic systems. Like your smart watch 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:51.920 isn't likely to go bonkers because of a geomagnetic storm. However, 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:54.920 some of the systems that the watch is connected to 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:57.840 could be affected, right Like, if your watch is pulling 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:01.160 down data from a server farm, that server farm could 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:05.000 definitely be affected by a geomagnetic storm. A really strong 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:08.720 storm can potentially cause widespread blackouts, and transformers on the 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:11.880 power grid can end up getting damaged as a result, severely, 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:15.359 So sometimes transformers will actually suffer so much damage they 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:17.600 need to be replaced. So a quick reminder on what 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:22.480 a transformer actually is. Essentially, a transformer's job and I'm 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:25.399 talking about electrical transformers, not the more than meets the 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:29.359 eye robot kind. But transformer's job is to take alternating 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:33.199 current that's at one voltage and either step up or 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:37.960 step down that voltage, typically for the purposes of transmission. 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:43.399 So higher voltage alternating current or AC power travels further 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.360 through power lines with less loss. So if you want 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:49.879 to transmit a lot of power from a central source, 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:52.040 like let's say it's a power plant, you want to 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:55.160 crank the voltage up really high to push it through 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:58.119 the powers lines and then have a second transformer on 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:01.200 the other end to bring the voltage back down before 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:05.760 you deliver it to your customers. So that's what transformers do. Essentially, 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:10.320 they do this by having two electromagnetic coils next to 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:13.320 each other, and as current flows through one coil, it 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:16.560 induces current to flow through the other coil. If coil 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:22.000 number one has fewer loops than coil number two, then 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:25.600 coil number two is going to have greater voltage than 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:28.280 coil number one. This is stepping up. If coil number 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:31.680 two has fewer loops in its coil than coil number one, 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:34.600 then it's going to be a step down. The voltage 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.959 is going to decrease. That's the basics. There's more to 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:40.919 it than that, but that's the basic idea. So a 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:44.920 geomagnetic storm, which is one that can induce massive changes 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:48.520 in current, can really mess up an electrical system that's 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:52.720 relying upon transformers. You can suddenly have cases where the 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:56.600 voltage is truly out of control. Now, if you've ever 0:18:56.640 --> 0:18:59.840 been near a transformer when it overloaded, you've likely seen 0:18:59.880 --> 0:19:03.440 a pretty spectacular and scary display. I've seen it happen 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:06.960 a few times. Often there's a very loud bang. I 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:09.440 remember the first time I ever heard one. I thought 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:11.800 someone had fired off a shotgun next to me. And 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:16.280 then often there's lots and lots of sparks from the transformer. 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:19.520 In the event of a single transformer going out, you 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:23.119 can end up having power loss in that immediate area, 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:25.320 and a power company can sometimes do some work to 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:27.920 get things back in order to re route some stuff 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:30.520 and be able to at least restore power in a 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:34.240 region within a few hours. Replacing the transformer takes a 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:38.199 bit longer. But imagine that we're talking about an event 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:41.639 that takes effect over an entire region, not just like 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:45.320 one transformer on a city block or something. We're talking 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:48.560 about like a region that might be several states or 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:53.440 even countries in size. Well that large a section of 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:57.879 the power grid With that many potentially thousands of transformers overloading, 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:01.680 that would be truly disastrous. You would have a real 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:04.479 mess on your hands. It could take you more than 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:07.439 a year to fix something like that. So a severe 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:09.879 geomagnetic storm has the potential to do a lot of 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:13.359 damage here on Earth. With enough warning, various parties like 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:17.359 power companies can actually make adjustments that will mitigate the problem. 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:22.600 You can also harden things against these geomagnetic storms to 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:25.560 some degree. We'll talk more about that a bit later, 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:29.399 but we can still experience effects here on Terra Firma. However, 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:32.840 we do have methods to at least minimize their impact. 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:36.120 So if we have enough warning ahead of time, there 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:39.280 are certain steps that we can take that will reduce 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:43.639 the impact of these geomagnetic events. But what if we 0:20:43.680 --> 0:20:47.320 could create the same sort of magnetic disturbance on a 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:51.119 human made scale, And what if we could weaponize that? 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:53.919 And what if we already have And I'm not talking 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:57.360 about hypotheticals now. We didn't necessarily set out to do 0:20:57.400 --> 0:21:01.720 this initially. It was really a byproduct of looking for 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:05.199 a way to create really huge, deadly explosions meant to 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:08.640 kill people directly. But now that we've figured out how 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:11.399 to do it, well, what are the implications of that? 0:21:11.920 --> 0:21:15.800 So what I'm talking about here are nuclear detonations, And 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:19.000 I talked about nuclear detonations a bit not too long ago, 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:21.000 But one thing I didn't mention is that they can 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:26.240 create They do create electromagnetic pulses or EMPs. When a 0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:30.760 nuclear payload explodes. One of the many byproducts of that 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:35.520 explosion is a release of highly energetic gamma rays. These 0:21:35.640 --> 0:21:38.560 rays truly have a tremendous amount of energy, and they 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:43.120 can strip electrons off of atoms and ionize air molecules, 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:48.320 which creates free electrons called Compton electrons and positively charged 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:51.240 ions as a result. This is also where we talk 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:56.240 about ionizing versus non ionizing radiation. When you talk about radiation, 0:21:56.720 --> 0:22:00.479 most people immediately think of nuclear radiation, but radiation is 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:04.400 a broader term. It doesn't just mean stuff that's radioactive. 0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:08.879 Radiation is more about how the energy propagates. Right. Well, 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:12.240 if something is non ionizing, it means that the energy 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:16.879 contained within that thing is not sufficient to strip electrons 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:22.000 away from atoms. So, for example, radio waves are non ionizing. 0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:27.360 They do not have the energy necessary to ionize atoms, 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:32.760 and that's why people who are skeptical of claims that 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:36.080 radio waves, like being near a radio tower can have 0:22:36.119 --> 0:22:38.760 a negative impact on your health. That's the big counter 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:41.520 argument to that is that radio waves do not have 0:22:41.880 --> 0:22:46.160 the facility to ionize atoms, whereas something like gamma radiation, 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:48.840 which has a tremendous amount of energy in it, it 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:53.240 definitely has the ability to ionize atoms. So these charged 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:58.080 particles will generate an electromagnetic field, and that field is 0:22:58.119 --> 0:23:02.520 extremely strong near the point of detonation, like way stronger 0:23:02.560 --> 0:23:06.320 than other areas within our magnetosphere, and so it can 0:23:06.400 --> 0:23:10.040 interfere with not just electronic systems here on Earth, but 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:13.560 the magnetosphere itself really and it can have a really 0:23:13.560 --> 0:23:17.000 big impact on stuff like power lines, street lamps, that 0:23:17.080 --> 0:23:20.119 sort of stuff. It can also have an impact on 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:24.600 electronic systems and devices because while the Sun can do 0:23:24.760 --> 0:23:28.239 similar things like an electromagnetic pulse, can do it on 0:23:28.280 --> 0:23:33.640 a scale that's far more intense and targeted to a degree. 0:23:33.960 --> 0:23:37.600 So a high altitude nuclear detonation could do this, and 0:23:37.640 --> 0:23:41.880 in fact it has done this. This is not theoretical, 0:23:42.200 --> 0:23:45.240 we have observed it. So back in nineteen sixty two, 0:23:45.520 --> 0:23:48.240 the United States was really getting into the spirit of 0:23:48.280 --> 0:23:51.240 the Cold War with what was then the Soviet Union. 0:23:51.560 --> 0:23:54.880 So both of these superpowers had at one point put 0:23:54.920 --> 0:23:59.919 a moratorium on nuclear testing. But then the Soviet said, colmorat, 0:24:00.119 --> 0:24:02.960 we are going to test nuclear warheads again. And that 0:24:03.040 --> 0:24:05.800