U.S. and Europe Plan for 'Catastrophic Solar Event

[keithm]

U.S. and Europe Plan for 'Catastrophic Solar Event'


February 26, 2010

"Officials from Europe and the U.S. met in Colorado this week to test their ability to respond to a catastrophic weather event that could leave millions of people without electricity, running water and phone service. The event they're worried about isn't a hurricane or a tornado. It's an electromagnetic storm on the surface of the sun that produced enough radiation to cripple the power grid and knock out satellites."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124125001#commentBlock
Yeah!! Don't think they are meeting to discuss OUR best interest!

They are coordinating the alternate times for each government to go underground so as not to appear suspicious! The sheeple might suspect something if every nations' leaders suddenly disappeared!

[angelthecat]

Disabled Satellites Are Just The Beginning

The worst damage came nearly a day later, when the solar storm began to induce electrical currents in high voltage power lines. The currents were strong enough to destroy transformers around the globe," Bogdan says, leaving millions of people in northern latitudes without power.

Without electricity, many people also lost running water, heat, air conditioning and phone service. And places like hospitals had to rely on emergency generators with fuel for only two or three days, Bogdan says.

In many ways, the impact of a major solar storm resembles that of a hurricane or an earthquake, says Fugate.

But a solar Katrina would cause damage in a much larger area than any natural disaster, Fugate says. For example, power could be knocked out almost simultaneously in countries from Sweden to Canada and the U.S., he says. So a lot more people in a lot more places would need help.

Individuals don't need to make any special preparation for a solar storm, Fugate says. The standard emergency kit of water and food and first aid supplies will work just fine.

"If you've got your family disaster plan together, you've taken the steps, whether it be a space storm, whether it be a system failure, whether it be another natural hazard that knocks the power out," Fugate says.


I wonder haw many people had running water and electricity in 1921 and 1859 as he speaks of the events in the past sense with no date

[iaintoff]

I wonder haw many people had running water and electricity in 1921 and 1859 as he speaks of the events in the past sense with no date

guys this is the begining of the doomsday scenarion, how much more proof do you need.

[realy]

guys this is the begining of the doomsday scenarion, how much more proof do you need.

yup.

[tracker]

U.S. and Europe Plan for 'Catastrophic Solar Event'


February 26, 2010

"Officials from Europe and the U.S. met in Colorado this week to test their ability to respond to a catastrophic weather event that could leave millions of people without electricity, running water and phone service. The event they're worried about isn't a hurricane or a tornado. It's an electromagnetic storm on the surface of the sun that produced enough radiation to cripple the power grid and knock out satellites."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124125001#commentBlock
Yeah!! Don't think they are meeting to discuss OUR best interest!

They are coordinating the alternate times for each government to go underground so as not to appear suspicious! The sheeple might suspect something if every nations' leaders suddenly disappeared!

hm interesting .

why ?

because Britian is emptying a manchester library and putting all the books in a salt mine .

there is a thread on it on this forum .
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1190824_a_million_library_books_to_be_sent_down_th e_mines




the two are linked .

this doesnt appear to be just a natural drill meees thinks .

maybe

just maybe

this is the real thing .:cool:

[kodiak]

Well, world leaders cooperated over Y2K too and that didn't exactly kick off as feared, did it? If anything they're more worried about EMP issues from any near future nuclear exchange, given that they (i.e. the west) has been goading the rest of the world for decades and really upped the ante since 9-11.

[john connor]

My take on 2012 is I believe something is coming, I never even gave year 2K a second thought, so I don't see how the 2 can be compared, apart from the prophecies re 2012, it's the coincidences' that bother me when they are combined, you also have the ZION games and the LHC supposed to really kick in, I don't for one minute believe the LHC is an experiment for it's my personal belief that there are forces on this planet that know the entire truth and would therefor already know the results of what the LHC is supposed to find out. I think a lot of refs to Biblical end of days are happening, I think the PTB are acting out the script to revelations, after all they wrote the book..well we all have our beliefs and opinions.

[senoci]

sorry to say,,,but yes we're in shit street

[innerlight]

I wonder haw many people had running water and electricity in 1921 and 1859 as he speaks of the events in the past sense with no date

shhh..let the chicken littles run around and yell all they want. it's their security blanket.

well water and candlelight are just fine with me. and a few select books and lots of notebook paper and pens.

the pen is mightier than the Internet....

[iaintoff]

shhh..let the chicken littles run around and yell all they want. it's their security blanket.

well water and candlelight are just fine with me. and a few select books and lots of notebook paper and pens.

the pen is mightier than the Internet....


well thank god, then we wont have to go to every thread and see you insulting everybody....

[innerlight]

well thank god, then we wont have to go to every thread and see you insulting everybody....

i'm not insulting you. only your ego. can't help that sir :)

IAINTOFF.....has the sky fallen on top of you yet?

[kodiak]

My take on 2012 is I believe something is coming, I never even gave year 2K a second thought, so I don't see how the 2 can be compared, apart from the prophecies re 2012, it's the coincidences' that bother me when they are combined, you also have the ZION games and the LHC supposed to really kick in, I don't for one minute believe the LHC is an experiment for it's my personal belief that there are forces on this planet that know the entire truth and would therefor already know the results of what the LHC is supposed to find out. I think a lot of refs to Biblical end of days are happening, I think the PTB are acting out the script to revelations, after all they wrote the book..well we all have our beliefs and opinions.

Oh they did, did they? No way, but they might try to make their own version of its fulfillment for those with doctrinally false views on Christ's return, for example (I'm talking about the Rapture crowd). A Blue Beam scenario could deceive billions.

[decim]

A couple of years ago there were warnings on the radio in the UK, not sure if they were on TV aswell, that there was going to be increased "cosmic radiation" lasting for around 48hrs or so, with advice that people should stay indoors if possible.

I have trawled the search engines & this 'story has vapourized, does anyone else remember this or have info?

Individuals don't need to make any special preparation for a solar storm, Fugate says.

[innerlight]

Oh they did, did they? No way, but they might try to make their own version of its fulfillment for those with doctrinally false views on Christ's return, for example (I'm talking about the Rapture crowd). A Blue Beam scenario could deceive billions.

but wouldn't "Christ" have to grab all his "believers" into his magic elevator and take them up to Disneyland Universe in order to fulfill said "rapture"?

i mean it does sound plausible, but many things have to happen besides the Great Hippy floating down on a cloud.....

[coco]

Wasn't there sunspots or some elevated solar activity in the late 90s that was supposed to kill all electronics and us too?

Didn't affect my city. Didn't affect TV. Didn't affect cell phones. Didn't kill us.

More sensational overkill. The news spreads so quickly about things we are previously unfamiliar with these days. Contingency plans and drills have always taken place and besides, if some catastrophe does happen what can we do about it? Man will persevere as he always has. Civilizations have been destroyed before and rebuilt.

I'm still sneaking leaky, rusty tins of food from the closet to the rubbish that my parents collected for Y2K.

[bougz]

Here at work...sheeple saying it's end of the world..I pretty much think there not awake Ans know what's up! Sad to see groups of people hovering around the TV with fear in there eyes and hearts.

[coco]

Here at work...sheeple saying it's end of the world..I pretty much think there not awake Ans know what's up! Sad to see groups of people hovering around the TV with fear in there eyes and hearts.

My friend, you speak so realistically. I am tired of all the sensational end of the world stuff that I've been hearing all my life. If it's not killer asteroids, it's killer, earthly enemies, killer bees, killer illnesses, killer sunspots, killer this and that.

There are real threats in this world and I am sorry for the real suffering they inflict, but what's the point of concocting imagined ones?

[iaintoff]

Wasn't there sunspots or some elevated solar activity in the late 90s that was supposed to kill all electronics and us too?

Didn't affect my city. Didn't affect TV. Didn't affect cell phones. Didn't kill us.

More sensational overkill. The news spreads so quickly about things we are previously unfamiliar with these days. Contingency plans and drills have always taken place and besides, if some catastrophe does happen what can we do about it? Man will persevere as he always has. Civilizations have been destroyed before and rebuilt.

I'm still sneaking leaky, rusty tins of food from the closet to the rubbish that my parents collected for Y2K.


great, i feel so much better now:D:D:D

[subl1minal]

My friend, you speak so realistically. I am tired of all the sensational end of the world stuff that I've been hearing all my life. If it's not killer asteroids, it's killer, earthly enemies, killer bees, killer illnesses, killer sunspots, killer this and that.

There are real threats in this world and I am sorry for the real suffering they inflict, but what's the point of concocting imagined ones?

It's getting obvious that all Civilizations are wiped out in the end though, there's a pattern emerging, but we deserve it, look at the state of the planet. It needs cleansing. So it wouldn't surprised me if all planets had their own cleansing periods. Who else is going to clean this planet up? us? lol

All of these 'end of the world' scenarios have never happened, but one day it will, it's like crying wolf..

Don't take my post negatively either, I really couldn't be anymore positive about serious Earth changes happening.

[psychick]

Who gives a flying fuck..

I mean really? !!

Do you guys enjoy being so negative and doom and gloom? sheesh.
I can just imagine most of you sitting at your computers with grumpy faces and that little overfed hamster in your treadmill of a brain, out-running itself.

WHATEVER.

Go play pool or something because this is total insanity!

[subl1minal]

Who gives a flying fuck..

I mean really? !!

Do you guys enjoy being so negative and doom and gloom? sheesh.
I can just imagine most of you sitting at your computers with grumpy faces and that little overfed hamster in your treadmill of a brain, out-running itself.

WHATEVER.

Go play pool or something because this is total insanity!

It's only negative if you perceive it to be. I find it highly interesting. ;)

[psychick]

Can you explain to me why its interesting please?

I see it as mindless banter because who cares if one is without electricity, water and whatever the other utility was lol

Summer is coming so bring on the solar CATASTROPHIC EVENT!!!!

I can't for the life of me think why water has anything to do with electricity blow out but hey... :rolleyes:

[analog]

Brilliant


U.S. and Europe Plan for 'Catastrophic Solar Event'


February 26, 2010

"Officials from Europe and the U.S. met in Colorado this week to test their ability to respond to a catastrophic weather event that could leave millions of people without electricity, running water and phone service. The event they're worried about isn't a hurricane or a tornado. It's an electromagnetic storm on the surface of the sun that produced enough radiation to cripple the power grid and knock out satellites."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124125001#commentBlock
Yeah!! Don't think they are meeting to discuss OUR best interest!

They are coordinating the alternate times for each government to go underground so as not to appear suspicious! The sheeple might suspect something if every nations' leaders suddenly disappeared!

[pound]

U.S. and Europe Plan for 'Catastrophic Solar Event'


February 26, 2010

"Officials from Europe and the U.S. met in Colorado this week to test their ability to respond to a catastrophic weather event that could leave millions of people without electricity, running water and phone service. The event they're worried about isn't a hurricane or a tornado. It's an electromagnetic storm on the surface of the sun that produced enough radiation to cripple the power grid and knock out satellites."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124125001#commentBlock
Yeah!! Don't think they are meeting to discuss OUR best interest!

They are coordinating the alternate times for each government to go underground so as not to appear suspicious! The sheeple might suspect something if every nations' leaders suddenly disappeared!


Nice location for them to hold theyre 'discussions'. I wonder if they plan to meet at the Denver Airport!

[ufochick]

Can you explain to me why its interesting please?

I see it as mindless banter because who cares if one is without electricity, water and whatever the other utility was lol

Summer is coming so bring on the solar CATASTROPHIC EVENT!!!!

I can't for the life of me think why water has anything to do with electricity blow out but hey... :rolleyes:

Not sure which water you mean. The water taps won't work if the power goes down. Flooding? maybe....

I tink people discuss these things (even you are reading this) because it allows them to mentally prepare for a future occurance.

[slodave]

Wasn't there sunspots or some elevated solar activity in the late 90s that was supposed to kill all electronics and us too?

Didn't affect my city. Didn't affect TV. Didn't affect cell phones. Didn't kill us.

More sensational overkill. The news spreads so quickly about things we are previously unfamiliar with these days. Contingency plans and drills have always taken place and besides, if some catastrophe does happen what can we do about it? Man will persevere as he always has. Civilizations have been destroyed before and rebuilt.

I'm still sneaking leaky, rusty tins of food from the closet to the rubbish that my parents collected for Y2K.

sounds to me like you need to get busy on that closet and get her cleaned up before it causes a serios catastrophe, shit man, a stinky closet since Y2K. CALL HAZMAT! what the hell?

[subl1minal]

Can you explain to me why its interesting please?

I see it as mindless banter because who cares if one is without electricity, water and whatever the other utility was lol

Summer is coming so bring on the solar CATASTROPHIC EVENT!!!!

I can't for the life of me think why water has anything to do with electricity blow out but hey... :rolleyes:


Just because it is, to me anyway, why do you I need to explain it to you? :cool:

[pri01]

hm interesting .

why ?

because Britian is emptying a manchester library and putting all the books in a salt mine .

there is a thread on it on this forum .
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1190824_a_million_library_books_to_be_sent_down_th e_mines




the two are linked .

this doesnt appear to be just a natural drill meees thinks .

maybe

just maybe

this is the real thing .:cool:

I think so to. How long have these books been on bookshelves for in the library they are being moved from? Surely, to be stored temporaraly in another building in the same way for the next 3 years should be sufficient.

I know rare books are stored carefully in libraries to limit damage caused by exposure to air etc. But these precautions can be adopted and created elsewhere with planning. As Tracker said, they're moving ALL of the rare books including others yet not all of them are old or indeed rare. Many books are being stored elswhere too, but very extreme measures I think to consider using salt mines as a place of storage.

[anthony1965]

In 1967, Walter and Leigh Richmond published a novel called the "Lost Millenium" which described a technology referred to in the book as a "solar tap". The idea was to tap the solar energy for use as power on earth, but due to an accident there was a runaway energy surge that caused massive devastation on earth.

Walter Richmond was a scientist researching atmospheric electricity, the electric currents between the earth and the ionosphere. Richmond went to Washington in 1963 to JFKs science advisor. Their papers were placed under the official secrets act. The Richmond's were frustrated that their work was being hindered (they were told to shut up) and they turned to fiction to express their ideas.

Interestingly, the novel was renamed "Siva" a few years ago. Siva being the God of destruction whose statue can be found at CERN.

Solar flares are nothing new, what is new is the science to fuck the ionosphere and radiation belts that usually protect us from the solar radiation.

Remember that when the Van Allen Belt was discovered, both Americans and Russians set off nuclear explosions in the belt in the very same year.

Wankers. :mad:

[geordiejp]

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/pickoftheweek/

SOHO has been watching in extreme UV wavelength as a very long, magnetic filament (approaching one million km), quickly disappeared (Feb. 20-25, 2010). Filaments are notoriously unstable and often become untethered and erupt, with some of the filamentary material getting blasted into space. And it happened again. The SOHO C2 coronagraph shows a coronal mass ejection cloud billowing away near where the filament was at 17:54 UT on Feb. 24 and the filament is gone by the next extreme UV frame taken an hour later. The still image was slightly enhanced to better define the filament and its length. Filaments are clouds of gas suspended above the surface of the Sun by magnetic forces. Since filaments are slightly cooler than the Sun's surface, they appear somewhat darker.

Just te beginning i guess !!1

[icarus]

all this scary talk just happens to coincide with the greatest wealth/land grab in history

they woudn't have built military bases in low lying countries if there was a thread of truth to this talk. the last ten years would have been pointless if all those people they've moved out of their way were going to get fried anyway in 2012

it's scare mongering. a few scary lights and spirals come the time will do the rest to panic the terrified herd in whatever direction they have waiting for us, with camps built and ready to process us

just look up Tesla and see what he was doing a century ago:eek:

[the apprentice]

all this scary talk just happens to coincide with the greatest wealth/land grab in history

they woudn't have built military bases in low lying countries if there was a thread of truth to this talk. the last ten years would have been pointless if all those people they've moved out of their way were going to get fried anyway in 2012

it's scare mongering. a few scary lights and spirals come the time will do the rest to panic the terrified herd in whatever direction they have waiting for us, with camps built and ready to process us

just look up Tesla and see what he was doing a century ago:eek:

Has anyone done any research into where the land grabs are situated and at what heights they are etc, in the documentary by, J R Moore, anyone know anything about him, hesays anything above 500 feet should be ok from the floods.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

[realy]

all this scary talk just happens to coincide with the greatest wealth/land grab in history

they woudn't have built military bases in low lying countries if there was a thread of truth to this talk. the last ten years would have been pointless if all those people they've moved out of their way were going to get fried anyway in 2012

it's scare mongering. a few scary lights and spirals come the time will do the rest to panic the terrified herd in whatever direction they have waiting for us, with camps built and ready to process us

just look up Tesla and see what he was doing a century ago:eek:

but maybe thats the wrench in there plans, remember they arent perfect ww3 would have gone off over 50 years ago and the NWO would have been here since then, they are always hiting roadblocks on the road to world dominance.

[freedom1st]

In 1967, Walter and Leigh Richmond published a novel called the "Lost Millenium" which described a technology referred to in the book as a "solar tap". The idea was to tap the solar energy for use as power on earth, but due to an accident there was a runaway energy surge that caused massive devastation on earth.

Walter Richmond was a scientist researching atmospheric electricity, the electric currents between the earth and the ionosphere. Richmond went to Washington in 1963 to JFKs science advisor. Their papers were placed under the official secrets act. The Richmond's were frustrated that their work was being hindered (they were told to shut up) and they turned to fiction to express their ideas.

Interestingly, the novel was renamed "Siva" a few years ago. Siva being the God of destruction whose statue can be found at CERN.

Solar flares are nothing new, what is new is the science to fuck the ionosphere and radiation belts that usually protect us from the solar radiation.

Remember that when the Van Allen Belt was discovered, both Americans and Russians set off nuclear explosions in the belt in the very same year.

Wankers. :mad:

+1

[the apprentice]

In 1967, Walter and Leigh Richmond published a novel called the "Lost Millenium" which described a technology referred to in the book as a "solar tap". The idea was to tap the solar energy for use as power on earth, but due to an accident there was a runaway energy surge that caused massive devastation on earth.

Walter Richmond was a scientist researching atmospheric electricity, the electric currents between the earth and the ionosphere. Richmond went to Washington in 1963 to JFKs science advisor. Their papers were placed under the official secrets act. The Richmond's were frustrated that their work was being hindered (they were told to shut up) and they turned to fiction to express their ideas.

Interestingly, the novel was renamed "Siva" a few years ago. Siva being the God of destruction whose statue can be found at CERN.

Solar flares are nothing new, what is new is the science to fuck the ionosphere and radiation belts that usually protect us from the solar radiation.

Remember that when the Van Allen Belt was discovered, both Americans and Russians set off nuclear explosions in the belt in the very same year.

Wankers. :mad:

Stargate below :)

http://cerncourier.com/cws/article/cern/29122/3/cernpeo9_7-04

[icarus]

Has anyone done any research into where the land grabs are situated and at what heights they are etc, in the documentary by, J R Moore, anyone know anything about him, hesays anything above 500 feet should be ok from the floods.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgimpoT92F4&feature=related

that's a good point, i was thinking along those lines. what altitude are their land grabs

mostly though they've grabbed oil, and strategic land around iran etc. not much use when the continents shift, massive flooding comes etc

they seem to have been very busy for people who know there isn't any point. why not just go underground and then emerge to take what they want, anywhere they want that is left

i just don't buy it, but if enough people do, it'll be that much easier for them to push their final power grab, and announce their new world, in london, in 2012

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nIlV5pqQjQ0/S4KjOdh3ivI/AAAAAAAADUI/Z3Yj0r1hEHA/s400/Baftas+2010+My+Prince+Charming!+Even+Vanessa+Redgr ave+bends+her+knee+to+William...+and+he+helps+her+ back+up+to+her+feet+1.jpg

[decim]

An undergound base isn't going to be much use if it ends up under 5000ft of 'new ocean'...

13 years to build and in 'service' for 4 years?

Hideout?

The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station (ISS) is an internationally developed research facility that is being assembled in low Earth orbit. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998 and is scheduled for completion by 2011. The station is expected to remain in operation until at least 2015,

The final section of Kibō was delivered in July 2009 on STS-127, and the third node, Tranquillity, in February 2010 during STS-130 by the Space Shuttle Endeavour, alongside the Cupola
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupola_%28ISS_module%29).

The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupola_%28ISS_module%29 provides an observation and work area for the ISS crew giving visibility to support the control of the space station remote manipulator system and general external viewing of Earth, celestial objects and visiting vehicles. Its name derives from Italian word cupola, which means dome

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c2/Cupola_ISS_open_shutters_middle_crop.jpg/570px-Cupola_ISS_open_shutters_middle_crop.jpg
Cupola ISS open shutters middle crop (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cupola_ISS_open_shutters_middle_crop.jpg)

[the apprentice]

An undergound base isn't going to be much use if it ends up under 5000ft of 'new ocean'...

13 years to build and in 'service' for 4 years?

Hideout?

The International Space Station (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station) (ISS) is an internationally developed research facility that is being assembled in low Earth orbit. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998 and is scheduled for completion by 2011. The station is expected to remain in operation until at least 2015,

The final section of Kibō was delivered in July 2009 on STS-127, and the third node, Tranquillity, in February 2010 during STS-130 by the Space Shuttle Endeavour, alongside the Cupola
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupola_%28ISS_module%29).

The Cupola (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupola_%28ISS_module%29) provides an observation and work area for the ISS crew giving visibility to support the control of the space station remote manipulator system and general external viewing of Earth, celestial objects and visiting vehicles. Its name derives from Italian word cupola, which means dome

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c2/Cupola_ISS_open_shutters_middle_crop.jpg/570px-Cupola_ISS_open_shutters_middle_crop.jpg
Cupola ISS open shutters middle crop (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cupola_ISS_open_shutters_middle_crop.jpg)

I wouldn't put it past the absolute top echelon to trick all those who think themselves a godly entity, to get all the other worldly opposition underground to actually get rid of them and to try and stay on top during and after such a calamity so they have the ultimate rule afterwards, its human nature to have our cake and eat theirs too.

[coco]

sounds to me like you need to get busy on that closet and get her cleaned up before it causes a serios catastrophe, shit man, a stinky closet since Y2K. CALL HAZMAT! what the hell?

It's laziness, Dave. They stacked it all up there and forgot about it. I discovered them after I moved back in with them. I told them I would throw the cans out when I saw they were rusty and kinda moist but they asserted they paid for the cans and would not throw them out - hording. So I spirit some out now and again as they are of no use to anyone, anymore. They don't smell though.

[psychick]

An undergound base isn't going to be much use if it ends up under 5000ft of 'new ocean'...




:D Yeah, its kinda the biggest oxymoron.

[lextorite]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2003/dec/18/science.research1

Each year less light reaches the surface of the Earth. No one is sure what's causing 'global dimming' - or what it means for the future. In fact most scientists have never heard of it. By David Adam



In 1985, a geography researcher called Atsumu Ohmura at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology got the shock of his life. As part of his studies into climate and atmospheric radiation, Ohmura was checking levels of sunlight recorded around Europe when he made an astonishing discovery. It was too dark. Compared to similar measurements recorded by his predecessors in the 1960s, Ohmura's results suggested that levels of solar radiation striking the Earth's surface had declined by more than 10% in three decades. Sunshine, it seemed, was on the way out.

The finding went against all scientific thinking. By the mid-80s there was undeniable evidence that our planet was getting hotter, so the idea of reduced solar radiation - the Earth's only external source of heat - just didn't fit. And a massive 10% shift in only 30 years? Ohmura himself had a hard time accepting it. "I was shocked. The difference was so big that I just could not believe it," he says. Neither could anyone else. When Ohmura eventually published his discovery in 1989 the science world was distinctly unimpressed. "It was ignored," he says.

It turns out that Ohmura was the first to document a dramatic effect that scientists are now calling "global dimming". Records show that over the past 50 years the average amount of sunlight reaching the ground has gone down by almost 3% a decade. It's too small an effect to see with the naked eye, but it has implications for everything from climate change to solar power and even the future sustainability of plant photosynthesis. In fact, global dimming seems to be so important that you're probably wondering why you've never heard of it before. Well don't worry, you're in good company. Many climate experts haven't heard of it either, the media has not picked up on it, and it doesn't even appear in the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

"It's an extraordinary thing that for some reason this hasn't penetrated even into the thinking of the people looking at global climate change," says Graham Farquhar, a climate scientist at the Australian National University in Canberra. "It's actually quite a big deal and I think you'll see a lot more people referring to it."

That's not to say that the effect has gone unnoticed. Although Ohmura was the first to report global dimming, he wasn't alone. In fact, the scientific record now shows several other research papers published during the 1990s on the subject, all finding that light levels were falling significantly. Among them they reported that sunshine in Ireland was on the wane, that both the Arctic and the Antarctic were getting darker and that light in Japan, the supposed land of the rising sun, was actually falling. Most startling of all was the discovery that levels of solar radiation reaching parts of the former Soviet Union had gone down almost 20% between 1960 and 1987.

The problem is that most of the climate scientists who saw the reports simply didn't believe them.

"It's an uncomfortable one," says Gerald Stanhill, who published many of these early papers and coined the phrase global dimming. "The first reaction has always been that the effect is much too big, I don't believe it and if it's true then why has nobody reported it before."

That began to change in 2001, when Stanhill and his colleague Shabtai Cohen at the Volcani Centre in Bet Dagan, Israel collected all the available evidence together and proved that, on average, records showed that the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface had gone down by between 0.23 and 0.32% each year from 1958 to 1992.

This forced more scientists to sit up and take notice, though some still refused to accept the change was real, and instead blamed it on inaccurate recording equipment.

Solar radiation is measured by seeing how much the side of a black plate warms up when exposed to the sun, compared with its flip side, which is shaded. It's a relatively crude device, and we have no way of proving how accurate measurements made 30 years ago really are. "To detect temporal changes you must have very good data otherwise you're just analysing the difference between data retrieval systems," says Ohmura.

Stanhill says the dimming effect is much greater than the possible errors (which anyway would make the light levels go up as well as down), but what was really needed was an independent way to prove global dimming was real. Last year Farquhar and his group in Australia provided it.

The 2001 article written by Stanhill and Cohen sparked Farquhar's interest and he made some inquiries. The reaction was not always positive and when he mentioned the idea to one high-ranking climate scientist (whose name he is reluctant to reveal) he was told: "That's bullshit, Graham. If that was the case then we'd all be freezing to death."

But Farquhar had realised that the idea of global dimming could explain one of the most puzzling mysteries of climate science. As the Earth warms, you would expect the rate at which water evaporates to increase. But in fact, study after study using metal pans filled with water has shown that the rate of evaporation has gone down in recent years. When Farquhar compared evaporation data with the global dimming records he got a perfect match. The reduced evaporation was down to less sunlight shining on the water surface. And while Stanhill and Cohen's 2001 report appeared in a relatively obscure agricultural journal, Farquhar and his colleague Michael Roderick published their solution to the evaporation paradox in the high-profile American magazine Science. Almost 20 years after it was first noticed, global dimming was finally in the mainstream. "I think over the past couple of years it's become clear that the solar irradiance at the Earth's surface has decreased," says Jim Hansen, a leading climate modeller with Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.

The missing radiation is in the region of visible light and infrared - radiation like the ultraviolet light increasingly penetrating the leaky ozone layer is not affected. Stanhill says there is now sufficient interest in the subject for a special session to be held at the joint meeting of the American and Canadian geophysical societies in Montreal next May.

So what causes global dimming? The first thing to say is that it's nothing to do with changes in the amount of radiation arriving from the sun. Although that varies as the sun's activity rises and falls and the Earth moves closer or further away, the global dimming effect is much, much larger and the opposite of what would be expected given there has been a general increase in overall solar radiation over the past 150 years.

That means something must have happened to the Earth's atmosphere to stop the arriving sunlight penetrating. The few experts who have studied the effect believe it's down to air pollution. Tiny particles of soot or chemical compounds like sulphates reflect sunlight and they also promote the formation of bigger, longer lasting clouds. "The cloudy times are getting darker," says Cohen, at the Volcani Centre. "If it's cloudy then it's darker, but when it's sunny things haven't changed much."

More importantly, what impact could global dimming have? If the effect continues then it's certainly bad news for solar power, as darker, cloudier skies will reduce its meagre efficiency still further. The effect on photosynthesis, and so on plant and tree growth, is more complicated and will probably be different in various parts of the world. In equatorial regions and parts of the southern hemisphere regularly flooded with light, photosynthesis is likely to be limited by carbon dioxide or water, not sunshine, and light levels would have to fall much further to force a change. In fact, in some cases photosynthesis could paradoxically increase slightly with global dimming as the broken, diffuse light that emerges from clouds can penetrate deep into forest canopies more easily than direct beams of sunlight from a clear blue sky.

But in the cloudy parts of the northern hemisphere, like Britain, it's a different story and if you grow tomatoes in a greenhouse you could be seeing the effects of global dimming already. "In the northern climate everything becomes light limiting and a reduction in solar radiation becomes a reduction in productivity," Cohen says. "In greenhouses in Holland, the rule of thumb is that a 1% decrease in solar radiation equals a 1% drop in productivity. Because they're light limited they're always very busy cleaning the tops of their greenhouses."

The other major impact global dimming will have is on the complex computer simulations climate scientists use to understand what is happening now and to predict what will happen in the future. For them, global dimming is a real sticking point. "All of their models, all the physics and mathematics of solar radiation in the Earth's atmosphere can't explain what we're measuring at the Earth's surface," Stanhill says. Farquhar agrees: "This will drive what the modellers have to do now. They're going to have to account for this."

David Roberts, a climate modeller with the Met Office's Hadley Centre, says that although the issue of global dimming raises some awkward questions, some of the computer simulations do at least address the mechanisms believed to be driving it. "Most of the processes involving aerosols and formation of clouds are already in there, though I accept it's a bit of a work in progress and more work needs to be done," Roberts says.

Another big question yet to be answered is whether the phenomenon will continue. Will our great grandchildren be eating lunch in the dark? Unlikely, though few studies are up to date enough to confirm whether or not global dimming is still with us. "There's been so little done that nobody really understands what's going on," Cohen says. There are some clues though.

O hmura says that satellite images of clouds seem to suggest that the skies have become slightly clearer since the start of the 1990s, and this has been accompanied by a sharp upturn in temperature. Both of these facts could indicate that global dimming has waned, and this would seem to tie in with the general reduction in air pollution caused by the scaling down of heavy industry across parts of the world in recent years. Just last month, Helen Power, a climate scientist at the University of South Carolina published one of the few analyses of up-to-date data for the 1990s and found that global dimming over Germany seemed to be easing. "But that's just one study and it's impossible to say anything about long-term trends from one study," she cautions.

It's also possible that global dimming is not entirely down to air pollution. "I don't think that aerosols by themselves would be able to produce this amount of global dimming," says Farquhar. Global warming itself might also be playing a role, he suggests, by perhaps forcing more water to be evaporated from the oceans and then blown onshore (although the evidence on land suggests otherwise). "If the greenhouse effect causes global dimming then that really changes the perspective," he says. In other words, while it keeps getting warmer it might keep getting darker. "I'm not saying it definitely is that, I'm just raising the question."

Ultimately, that and other questions will have to be considered by the scientists around the world who are beginning to think about how to prepare the next IPCC assessment report, due out in 2007. "The IPCC is the group that should investigate this and work out if people should be scared of it," says Cohen. Whatever their verdict, at least we are no longer totally in the dark about global dimming.

Further reading

Global Dimming: A Review of the Evidence, G Stanhill and S Cohen Agricultural and Forest Meteorology Volume 107 (2001), pages 255-278

The Cause of Decreased Pan Evaporation Over the Past 50 Years, M Roderick and G Farquhar Science Volume 298 (2002), pages 1410-1411

Observed Reductions of Surface Solar Radiation at Sites in the US and Worldwide, B Liepert Geophysical Research Letters Volume 29 (2002), pages 1421-1433

[lextorite]

A couple of years ago there were warnings on the radio in the UK, not sure if they were on TV aswell, that there was going to be increased "cosmic radiation" lasting for around 48hrs or so, with advice that people should stay indoors if possible.

I have trawled the search engines & this 'story has vapourized, does anyone else remember this or have info?

Was it in 2002?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/nov/10/science.research

Earth's magnetic field - the force that protects us from deadly radiation bursts from outer space - is weakening dramatically.

Scientists have discovered that its strength has dropped precipitously over the past two centuries and could disappear over the next 1,000 years.

The effects could be catastrophic. Powerful radiation bursts, which normally never touch the atmosphere, would heat up its upper layers, triggering climatic disruption. Navigation and communication satellites, Earth's eyes and ears, would be destroyed and migrating animals left unable to navigate.

'Earth's magnetic field has disappeared many times before - as a prelude to our magnetic poles flipping over, when north becomes south and vice versa,' said Dr Alan Thomson of the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh.

'Reversals happen every 250,000 years or so, and as there has not been one for almost a million years, we are due one soon.'

For more than 100 years, scientists have noted the strength of Earth's magnetic field has been declining, but have disagreed about interpretations. Some said its drop was a precursor to reversal, others argued it merely indicated some temporary variation in field strength has been occurring.

But now Gauthier Hulot of the Paris Geophysical Institute has discovered Earth's magnetic field seems to be disappearing most alarmingly near the poles, a clear sign that a flip may soon take place.

Using satellite measurements of field variations over the past 20 years, Hulot plotted the currents of molten iron that generate Earth's magnetism deep underground and spotted huge whorls near the poles.

Hulot believes these vortices rotate in a direction that reinforces a reverse magnetic field, and as they grow and proliferate these eddies will weaken the dominant field: the first steps toward a new polarity, he says.

And as Scientific American reports this week, this interpretation has now been backed up by computer simulation studies.

How long a reversal might last is a matter of scientific controversy, however. Records of past events, embedded in iron minerals in ancient lava beds, show some can last for thousands of years - during which time the planet will have been exposed to batterings from solar radiation. On the other hand, other researchers say some flips may have lasted only a few weeks.

Exactly what will happen when Earth's magnetic field disappears prior to its re-emergence in a reversed orientation is also difficult to assess. Compasses would point to the wrong pole - a minor inconvenience. More importantly, low-orbiting satellites would be exposed to electromagnetic batterings, wrecking them.

In addition, many species of migrating animals and birds - from swallows to wildebeests - rely on innate abilities to track Earth's magnetic field. Their fates are impossible to gauge.

As to humans, our greatest risk would come from intense solar radiation bursts. Normally these are contained by the planet's magnetic field in space. However, if it disappears, particle storms will start to batter the atmosphere.

'These solar particles can have profound effects,' said Dr Paul Murdin, of the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge. 'On Mars, when its magnetic field failed permanently billions of years ago, it led to its atmosphere being boiled off. On Earth, it will heat up the upper atmosphere and send ripples round the world with enormous, unpredictable effects on the climate.'

It is unlikely that humans could do much. Burrowing thousands of miles into solid rock to set things right would stretch the technological prowess of our descendants to bursting point, though such limitations do not worry film scriptwriters. Paramount's latest sci-fi thriller, The Core - directed by Englishman Jon Amiel, and starring Hilary Swank and Aaron Eckhart - depicts a world beset by just such a polar reversal, with radiation sweeping the planet.

The solution, according to the film, to be released next year, involves scientists drilling into Earth's mantle to set off a nuclear blast that will halt the reversal.

Given that temperatures at such depths rival those of the Sun's surface, such a task would seem impossible - except, of course, in Hollywood.

[consciousness]

U.S. and Europe Plan for 'Catastrophic Solar Event'


February 26, 2010

"Officials from Europe and the U.S. met in Colorado this week to test their ability to respond to a catastrophic weather event that could leave millions of people without electricity, running water and phone service. The event they're worried about isn't a hurricane or a tornado. It's an electromagnetic storm on the surface of the sun that produced enough radiation to cripple the power grid and knock out satellites."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124125001#commentBlock
Yeah!! Don't think they are meeting to discuss OUR best interest!

They are coordinating the alternate times for each government to go underground so as not to appear suspicious! The sheeple might suspect something if every nations' leaders suddenly disappeared!

More orchestrated HAARP. Seems like a hobby to them.

[con_dios]

Has anyone done any research into where the land grabs are situated and at what heights they are etc, in the documentary by, J R Moore, anyone know anything about him, hesays anything above 500 feet should be ok from the floods.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgimpoT92F4&feature=related
Your all assuming that the flooding is going to last for years. That's not what will happen if the most likely explanation for the increase in freak weather is that it is due to the approach of the dark companion star to our sun. This will cause an extinction level event of huge tides caused by the gravitational effect of the star coming relatively close to the earth. However when the star moves away again the tidal effect will cease and the water will recede. This could be as little as 7 days. So it is very likely that the people who are planning for this will simply escape to their bunkers while the rest of us drown, emerging weeks or months later to their "new world". They would have acheived their goal of eliminating 90% of the population without having to do anything.
For those who say "why haven't we seen this object" I would say some have and google is blocking a part of the sky near Orion in it's google earth program. Why is that?
Why is Bill gates in Antarctica, home to one of the most powerful telescopes on Earth?
Why are all the books being quickly stored underground?
Why are the elite buying up all the gold in the world?
Why is Denver rapidly becoming the new base of American power - CIA - Norad - Underground city at Denver Airport?
Why has the weather worldwide been so unusual this year?
I believe 2010 is the year not 2012 and those who are just thinking about 2012 are going to be too late to prepare.

[lextorite]

Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura - Ep. 7: Apocalypse 2012

301 Moved Permanently

[decim]

Pig's tits, they don't...

Watch this full screen...

X FACTOR SKYHOOKS - YouTube

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2003/dec/18/science.research1

Each year less light reaches the surface of the Earth. No one is sure what's causing 'global dimming' - or what it means for the future. In fact most scientists have never heard of it. By David Adam

[decim]

It wasn't that article, what I wrote about was a specific warning a couple of days before the event...must be going nuts..

Was it in 2002?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/nov/10/science.research

[pureheart]

Surely if the books are being stored underground and there is mass flooding they will get wet? Unless they are able to make the caves completely air and watertight?

And what is all the gold for?

[lynfowars]

I wonder haw many people had running water and electricity in 1921 and 1859 as he speaks of the events in the past sense with no date


Anything similar would hit ordinary people hard today, because they have grown to rely on easy water & powered goods to a degree unimaginable to those earlier times.

The shock alone could cause panic and even rioting in urban areas.

As before, my mantra is that those whacked-out crazy 'Preppers' like me will have all the food, water filters, etc we need to see us through best we can.

Those who ridicule us now, who call us Chicken Littles or other insults, to them I say, please don't call round when your family is starving, thirsty, or facing gangs who are too.

[lynfowars]

Surely if the books are being stored underground and there is mass flooding they will get wet? Unless they are able to make the caves completely air and watertight?

And what is all the gold for?

To protect them from rioters and/or fires? Who says it has to be floods or anything biblical?

You will know what 'all the gold' is for next year, when your £1000 today buys what, £300 of stuff next year, when gold will buy perhaps £6000 of stuff.

Gold is a safety net against a paper currency going into free fall. The devil s like George Soros are doing it, so should you, even if you can only get a few little half-sovereigns, better than nothing.

[pureheart]

Nothing to do with this then...

http://www.darkstar1.co.uk/gold.html

?

[slodave]

that's a good point, i was thinking along those lines. what altitude are their land grabs

mostly though they've grabbed oil, and strategic land around iran etc. not much use when the continents shift, massive flooding comes etc

they seem to have been very busy for people who know there isn't any point. why not just go underground and then emerge to take what they want, anywhere they want that is left

i just don't buy it, but if enough people do, it'll be that much easier for them to push their final power grab, and announce their new world, in london, in 2012

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nIlV5pqQjQ0/S4KjOdh3ivI/AAAAAAAADUI/Z3Yj0r1hEHA/s400/Baftas+2010+My+Prince+Charming!+Even+Vanessa+Redgr ave+bends+her+knee+to+William...+and+he+helps+her+ back+up+to+her+feet+1.jpg

2012 in london, huh? why london? Who in the hell would ever want to emerge and "grab power" at a cold little island off of europe in a smelly place such as london? oh i guess on our way to grab some power, i know a pub in earls court. we could stop, drink warm beer, play some darts, and get pissed. been there, wasn't impressed and saw no evidence of any "power" except a traffic jam at picadilly. I would probably choose to "emerge" elsewhere. at least a spot where there's cold beer, and not on a cold little island such as england.

[geordiejp]

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/pickoftheweek/


STEREO (Ahead) watched as a strong coronal mass ejection (CME) and an eruptive prominence rose up and stretched way out above the Sun's surface (Feb. 28, 2010). The composite image and movie show the action in both extreme UV wavelength (orange Sun) near and just above the solar surface overlaid on the frames from STEREO COR1 coronagraph that shows the material as it rises out into the corona. The video clip shows about 8 hours of activity. This is one of the brightest and most substantial CMEs we have seen in several years. And the presence of such bright prominence material in COR1 is very rare and has only been seen twice before.