Just a quick question from this fairly new lurker: does anyone have knowledgable information about the solar flare activity that is expected near the end of Dec.\beginning of Jan.? I've heard bits and pieces about the possible effects of such activity on electric utilities, but nothing detailed. If solar flares somehow cause major disruptions, a couple of intriguing scenarios surface: one, people may interpret power outages as Y2K-related and thus panic, even if computer malfunctiions had nothing to do with it; two, the powers that be may try to disguise Y2K problems by blaming them on the solar flares. Am I being naive, or do these things really pose a problem?

-- curious george (danjo99@juno.com), November 08, 1999

Answers

People will not panic until CNN tells them it is politically correct to panic.

-- Earl (earl.shuholm@worldnet.att.net), November 08, 1999.

The major problem with a flare is likely to be damage to the newer comsats that have chips with very narrow circuitry. There is a piece in the 1999 World Radio TV Handbook by an Australian Ph.D. who expects that we may lose a considerable number of comsats. We will have maybe 3 days warning from NOAA/NASA. Earlier this year a massive flare fortunately missed earth.

-- Les Holladay (holladayl@aol.com), November 08, 1999.