The big solar torch that roasts all of Earth’s electronic devices and takes us back to the Stone Age sounds like the plot of a bad science fiction movie – but it could happen. Fortunately, protecting your electronics from solar flares and electromagnetic pulses (EMP) is pretty simple.
You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on high-tech equipment, and you may even have everything you need in the kitchen. But if you want to get your own wallet, there are cheap, reliable EMP-resistant containers on the market. In this article, we will look at how exactly the sun can cook your favorite technology and the science behind it.
What is a solar torch?
Solar flares are explosions on the surface of the sun that emit heat, light and massive radiation. They also produce an electromagnetic pulse. Smaller torches happen quite often, and the largest, “solar class X torches”, happen about ten times a year. Disturbances caused by Class X missiles are usually limited to radio obscuration, but a particularly bad torch that hits at the right time can cause far-reaching damage.
Torches occur when parts of the Sun’s magnetic field intersect and quickly reorganize. This reorganization can cause the sun to emit large amounts of heat, light, and radiation. It is also possible to eject coronal mass, which is a huge outburst of solar wind plasma that can throw a billion tons of solar material into space at a speed of hundreds of kilometers per second.
Scientists can predict solar flares before they happen, and when they do, it still takes time for EMP to reach Earth. So, if you pay attention to the news, you will probably get a warning that a rocket is on the way. Then you have to take your vulnerable, expensive technique to safety.
The solar flare is also strong enough to interfere with the Earth’s magnetic field. Thus, compass readings can be turned off by up to 10 degrees, and auroras will be brighter and visible far south than usual. During the events in Carrington, the auroras were visible even south of Colombia and bright enough that newspapers could be read below them.
How can solar flares fry your technique?
While most of the EMPs produced by the Sun are too small to cause damage, a large torch could have a large enough pulse to destroy electronics on Earth. EMP contains a bunch of charged particles; when these particles hit something conductive, they give that charge to that conductive object, creating current in the part of the circuit that should not be active, or overloading the power line.
Electronics are designed to work in a special way, and the big problem is the existence of an electric charge somewhere where it shouldn’t be. The components can be fried, and the wires can melt when overloaded.
This has already happened
A large solar flare has destroyed electronics around the world before. In 1859, the Carrington Event, the largest solar storm in recorded history, destroyed the world’s telegraph systems. There were widespread reports of wire sparks, telegraph strikes and electric fires. Due to the amount of energy the solar flare injected into the lines, some operators were also able to send messages over the telegraph system without connecting batteries.
Electronics are far more widespread today than they were in the 1850s. Experts predict that a modern event in Carrington could cause billions of dollars in damage and leave large population centers without electricity for weeks.
Although the Carrington Event is the most damaging storm recorded, strong storms are quite common – they happen about once every three years. There have also been six “super storms” in the last 150 years, some of which have caused damage. The last storm that caused significant damage occurred in 1989 and cut off part of Quebec’s electricity grid for nine hours. In 2012, a coronal mass ejection strong enough to count as a super-storm for hair missed Earth.
Faraday’s cages are your friend
Back in the 1800s, British scientist Michael Faraday did a lot of pioneering work around electromagnetism. One of his most significant achievements was the establishment of the concept of the electromagnetic field. He also invented some kind of housing that would protect everything you put in it from electromagnetic radiation. This housing is known as the Faraday Cage.
Faraday’s cage not only protects your belongings from EMP and solar flares. It also prevents electric shocks, so you can use it to protect sensitive devices in an environment with high static current. This works because electricity will always go the easiest way to land. It is easier for a surge of current to travel around the outside of a highly conductive cage than to jump through far less conductive air or an insulated layer inside it.
You can see Faraday’s cage in action in this video:
Whatever you decide to use as a Faraday cage, you should test it before you rely on it to protect something you value. Testing Faraday’s cage is easy. Take something that requires a signal such as a phone or radio, put it in a cage, and then see if it still receives the signal. If you can’t call the phone, or the radio just becomes static, your cage works.
Plenty of Faraday cages are on the market
While it may sound like a piece of cutting-edge scientific equipment, Faraday’s cages are fairly readily available. Large retailers like Amazon and Walmart have a wide selection of “Faraday bags,” and the cheapest ones sell for less than $ 10.
Most of the Faraday bags you will see are just simple handbags, but there are also backpacks, luggage bags and laptop bags if you want something you can use every day. Just remember, Faraday’s cage will also block the phone signal, so don’t put a cell phone in it when you’re expecting a call.
You can make your own
If mass-produced Faraday bags and cages don’t suit your imagination, it’s not too hard to make your own from scratch or turn a household item into a Faraday cage. Making your own is as easy as making a frame out of wood, wire or a discarded object like a bird cage and surrounding it with fine metal mesh. Copper and aluminum are the best metals for your network, but steel wire will also work.
You can also buy Faraday fabric – a canvas with a conductive net woven into it. Faraday fabric can be used to line boxes, bags or even rooms and turn into a Faraday cage. If you have a favorite laptop bag or backpack, but want to offer an extra degree of protection for your devices, consider sewing a faraday fabric. One thing to remember is that Faraday’s cages also block radio signals. So if you leave your phone in a bag, pocket, or purse lined with Faraday fabric, don’t expect calls or messages to come.
Aluminum foil can be used to make a Faraday cage. For a disposable cage, you can put the device in an insulating layer, like a plastic sandwich bag, and then wrap it directly in foil. If you want to reuse your foil, you can coat an envelope or similar bag with it, and then put another envelope or bag in it to form an insulating layer. The foil should surround the device without holes or gaps in both cases.
Your appliances are not great Faraday cages
To some extent, any type of metal box will function as a Faraday cage, so you may be tempted to protect your technique in a conventional oven or microwave. Unfortunately, this will not always work. Although an oven or microwave can offer some degree of protection, they are not close to a perfect Faraday cage and are unlikely to provide the level of protection you need.
As he sought a way to stop criminals from remotely erasing data from phones seized as evidence, the Massachusetts Police Department turned to commercially available microwave ovens. The department’s rationale was that if it blocks microwave ovens, it should block the phone signal. They tested several microwave ovens and found that they were wrong (and they were also wrong that microwave ovens blocked their own microwave ovens).
Maybe you still have an effective Faraday cage in the house. Anything designed to block RFID signals will use a Faraday cage. So if you bought a backpack, box or wallet that offers RFID protection, you already have a functional Faraday cage in your possession. And if you don’t have a Faraday bag on hand, and pushing comes to pushing, you should go for aluminum foil and sandwich bags.
What else can you do?
Following the news websites and reports of agencies such as the Space Weather Forecast Center, NASA and the European Space Agency is a great place to start. Unless you plan to keep your laptop and cell phone in your Faraday bag 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you’ll need to know when the solar flare is coming. A solar flare can also increase the amount of electricity flowing through the mains, so installing a surge protector can give you an extra line of defense, along with protection against more common occurrences such as lightning strikes and mains failures.
Even if you protect everything in your home, there is a good chance that the power supply will be interrupted for a while. So it’s probably a good idea to prepare for a long power outage by buying a spare generator and storing water worth two weeks and canned or dried food. Energy agencies are closely monitoring solar forecasts and adjusting to minimize damage where necessary, so while this is unlikely to be a major problem, it is better to be safe than sorry.