2 Comments
User's avatar
Thoughtful India's avatar

What might be the implications of a superflare?

Would it knock out all electronics. Or would being indoors be sufficient to protect devices.

Expand full comment
Alastair Williams's avatar

Small devices, like phones or computers, would probably be ok even in the strongest flare. It is large systems like power grids or satellites (which are far more exposed) that suffer problems. The biggest problem would be damage to transformers in the electrical grid - these can be harmed by magnetic and electric fluctuations and they are both critical to the power grid and hard to replace. If a few go down there will be some short term disruption, but in a superflare you might expect dozens or hundreds to need repairing, and that would take weeks or months to do.

Expand full comment