This was a post on Facebook from Transpower recently
It’s the kind of story that has the makings of a Michael Bay movie… ‘Scientists warn of a huge plasma blast from the sun which will cause extreme geomagnetic storms on Earth and risk major damage to electricity grids across the globe’.
However, this is the very real risk of something called ‘space weather’, and in the absence of a Hollywood action hero, we’ve been preparing for this over several years, developing our own response plan with science experts and industry partners.We put this plan through its paces last week for our annual pan-industry exercise, where 300 people across more than 50 organisations came together to simulate an extreme space weather event.It was a great opportunity for the electricity sector to practise working together in a complex scenario which helps us strengthen our collective readiness to save the power system and all the Kiwis that rely on it for their wellbeing and livelihoods.
It’s work like this that has New Zealand leading the world in preparedness for large solar storms – and we’re not done yet, as we’ll continue to enhance our plans the more we learn from these large simulations.
So I asked the internet about the vulnerability of our devices
Google said:
Space weather events will generally not physically destroy or “fry” standalone portable radios like battery-powered walkie-talkies or emergency AM/FM receivers. However, intense solar storms can temporarily block or severely distort the radio signals themselves, rendering communication impossible until the space weather event passes. [1, 2, 3]
A breakdown of how space weather impacts your radios explains exactly what happens during these events:
1. Signal Disruption (The Real Threat)
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- High-Frequency (HF) Blackouts: Solar flares emit intense bursts of X-rays and ultraviolet radiation. When these hit Earth, they over-ionize the lower levels of the ionosphere. This causes the ionosphere to absorb rather than reflect radio waves, leading to hours-long radio blackouts for HF transceivers. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
- VHF/UHF (Line-of-Sight) Safety: Local or short-range portable radios (like standard walkie-talkies using VHF or UHF frequencies) are largely immune to this because their signals don’t rely on bouncing off the ionosphere. [1, 2, 3]
- GPS Interference: If your portable radio relies on built-in GPS or satellite syncing, geomagnetic storms can cause those signals to jump or drop completely. [1, 2]
2. Physical Damage Risk (The Exceptions)
Space weather primarily induces damaging electrical surges in long, connected conductors (like national power grids or long copper telephone lines). Portable devices are mostly safe because they lack the necessary surface area to build up a large, damaging current. However, damage can occur if: [1, 2, 3]
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- Plugged into the wall: If your portable radio is plugged into a charging cable connected to the mains power grid, a solar-induced power surge can travel through the wall outlet and fry the device. [1, 2]
- Connected to long wire antennas: If you hook up a long, external wire antenna to a portable radio, that antenna could act like a power line, picking up geomagnetically induced currents that might blow out the radio’s input circuitry.
Preparedness Tips
If you live in or travel to high-latitude areas where space weather (such as auroras) is more frequent: [1]
- Rely on self-power: Keep battery, solar, or hand-crank radios handy so you aren’t reliant on plugging devices into the grid during solar-induced power outages. [1, 2, 3]
- Unplug from the mains: Disconnect your radios and charging cables from electrical outlets if a severe solar storm warning is issued. [1]
- Switch frequencies: If your long-range radio goes dead during a flare, try swapping to VHF frequencies for short-range, line-of-sight communication. [1]
- Monitor space weather: Check official tracking sites like the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center or monitor alerts from GetReady New Zealand to know when communication windows will be degraded. [1, 2]
Our Civil Defence organisation “Get Ready” had this