Would magn. pole reversal actually mess up electronic equipment?
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From: JJ on 30 Nov 2009 10:19 Hi this has perhaps been asked before(?) Apologies in that case. What I wanted to ask is, if earths magnetic pole now would manage to flip in a really quick timespan (let's say less than 5 minutes), would that have any effect on electronic equipment, and if so, why? I mean I would think that the would not be any effect. After all, electronic equipment do not rely on earths magnetic field in some way. How would they? Or would there be some effect on electronic equipment if the flip happened in less than 30 seconds? Thanks in advance,
From: Dirk Bruere at NeoPax on 30 Nov 2009 11:37 JJ wrote: > Hi > > this has perhaps been asked before(?) > > Apologies in that case. > > What I wanted to ask is, if earths magnetic pole now would manage to > flip in a really quick timespan (let's say less than 5 minutes), would > that have any effect on electronic equipment, and if so, why? > > I mean I would think that the would not be any effect. After all, > electronic equipment do not rely on earths magnetic field in some way. > How would they? > > Or would there be some effect on electronic equipment if the flip > happened in less than 30 seconds? > > Thanks in advance, Nothing much would happen to electronics. However, in such a short timescale there may be some effect on large power grids. -- Dirk http://www.transcendence.me.uk/ - Transcendence UK http://www.theconsensus.org/ - A UK political party http://www.blogtalkradio.com/onetribe - Occult Talk Show
From: GregS on 30 Nov 2009 11:52 In article <49680269-4c38-4569-9956-3bd58443e556(a)s21g2000prm.googlegroups.com>, JJ <santa(a)temporaryinbox.com> wrote: >Hi > >this has perhaps been asked before(?) > >Apologies in that case. > >What I wanted to ask is, if earths magnetic pole now would manage to >flip in a really quick timespan (let's say less than 5 minutes), would >that have any effect on electronic equipment, and if so, why? > >I mean I would think that the would not be any effect. After all, >electronic equipment do not rely on earths magnetic field in some way. >How would they? > >Or would there be some effect on electronic equipment if the flip >happened in less than 30 seconds? > Well, you might need battery power. The atmosphere may shield partially, buy solar wind can destroy satellites. Don't know if GPS would work, but would certainly cause much grief. greg
From: Martin Brown on 30 Nov 2009 12:24 JJ wrote: > Hi > > this has perhaps been asked before(?) > > Apologies in that case. > > What I wanted to ask is, if earths magnetic pole now would manage to > flip in a really quick timespan (let's say less than 5 minutes), would > that have any effect on electronic equipment, and if so, why? On the night side you would see global aurora for a few minutes if the sun was suitably active. Most satellite electronics will survive all but the nastiest solar flares. > > I mean I would think that the would not be any effect. After all, > electronic equipment do not rely on earths magnetic field in some way. > How would they? Gauss meters, hall probes and magnetic compass devices and the like would not be too happy. And all the shims for NMRs would need to be redone since the Earths field would be the opposite polarity and perhaps not at the same dip angle. > > Or would there be some effect on electronic equipment if the flip > happened in less than 30 seconds? If you flip it fast enough then you could induce damaging currents in long conductors. That has happened in the past with te most powerful solar flare storms over Canada eg in 1989. See for example: http://www.spaceweather.gc.ca/se-pow-eng.php But unless the Earth's field had a similar rate of change to that experienced in an extreme magnetic storm I think most things would take it in their stride. Big continental power grids with long wires would be the most likely to drop out. Regards, Martin Brown
From: cassiope on 30 Nov 2009 12:52
On Nov 30, 7:19 am, JJ <sa...(a)temporaryinbox.com> wrote: > Hi > > this has perhaps been asked before(?) > > Apologies in that case. > > What I wanted to ask is, if earths magnetic pole now would manage to > flip in a really quick timespan (let's say less than 5 minutes), would > that have any effect on electronic equipment, and if so, why? > > I mean I would think that the would not be any effect. After all, > electronic equipment do not rely on earths magnetic field in some way. > How would they? > > Or would there be some effect on electronic equipment if the flip > happened in less than 30 seconds? > > Thanks in advance, On the older CRT scopes, you'd have to readjust the trace rotation. |