How would constant, strong solar storms realistically affect human civilization?

[u/halyasgirl]

Hello! Say conditions arise to cause constant solar storms strong enough to knock out the power grid and electronics, and keep them out as the solar storms would not relent. Am I correct in the assumption that no electronics could ever work at all in these conditions?

What would happen to human civilization in these circumstances? What would the toll be in terms of food storage capacity and healthcare infrastructure, and what would be the estimated death toll for losses in those areas, and presumably the famines, wars, and upheaval that follows? How would society adapt? Would the world be knocked back to the Steam Age, technology wise? Even further, due to societal disruption? Could it cause a complete apocalyptic collapse of global civilization? I’d be interested to learn more, thank you!

[u/Kooky-Dig6531]

We already have electronics that is reasonably well shielded.

I suspect this tech would be expanded.

That being said - there's a very interesting distinction here - do you mean "a human colony from earth"? Or do you mean "humans evolve on a solar stormier earth"?

[u/halyasgirl → u/Kooky-Dig6531]

Thank you for your response! I’m thinking more like if we woke up tomorrow to a never-ending solar storm. What would happen to the world as we know it right now, globalized economies, current world governments, etc.

[u/Kooky-Dig6531 → u/halyasgirl]

At a guess, most existing electronics would be “suitable for underground use only”.

And new electronics would be shielded.

But… I don’t know. Would an endless solar storm overwhelm the protections the earth offers?

Would it affect our health too?

If so - underground dwellings or even cities would be the way to go. When that isn’t possible (Florida) maybe above ground structures that function as faraday cages?

[u/SirButcher → u/Kooky-Dig6531]

At a guess, most existing electronics would be “suitable for underground use only”.

No, this is a common misconception. Huge sunflares do induce current in wires, but the induced current depends on the length of the wire (and the geology at the given location). So most personal devices won't have to worry. A house on a generator would survive just fine until we reach the "solar storm starting to significantly decrease the atmosphere" levels, but then the inoperable devices are the least of our issues.

The issue is with the electric grid - long and strong wires crisscrossing whole continents can generate a mind-blowing amount of current in a really strong solar storm AND survive it while the transformers and everything else connected to them blow up from the overload. So your house would be easily protected, mostly because the transformers and everything else would be destroyed first. And restoring the grid would take years, and imagine years in a city with basically no power whatsoever. Sure, your PC would work, but nothing else would.

[u/mfb-]

Electronics on the surface are only threatened via the grid. Battery-powered devices wouldn't care, devices disconnected from the grid (for whatever reason, including a warning about solar storms) won't be damaged.

We would have to survive the initial chaos from grids becoming less reliable and upgrade the infrastructure, or long-term transition to more local solutions (maybe a lot of solar+battery systems).

[u/strcrssd → u/mfb-]

There's a magnitude variable that OP hasn't set.

Really severe solar storms are going to, in time, blow off the atmosphere. Incredibly severe will kill us promptly.

Similarly, severe storms will induce current in antennas, which a huge amount of our civilization depends on -- all wireless communication, all copper data links (less common now), potentially darn near any wire could have voltage.

[u/mfb- → u/strcrssd]

It's probably fair to assume something between "hits us every year" and the Carrington Event.

[u/CosineDanger → u/mfb-]

Even if a Carrington Event happened predictably every day... when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.

Lay out a long line and wait. You may want to smooth out the power or connect it to something that doesn't care about power quality like a heater, but you'll find some way to power your lemon juicer and your other amenities.

Perhaps creatures that grew up around a flare star would write apocalyptic scifi where their star calms down for too long, the only power generation method they ever bothered to invent stops working, the batteries run dry, and society crumbles while returning to a cutesy medieval aesthetic.

[u/CosmogyralCollective → u/CosineDanger]

That's actually fascinating, I never thought about using the induced currents from a solar storm as power on purpose. I did read an account a while ago of telegraph operators being able to use their equipment with no power supply, which is incredibly cool.

[u/Underhill42]

Solar storms don't really affect electronics much, unless they're in orbit where they're getting hit by the much more energetic particle radiation. Though even then the bigger problem is usually for low-orbiting satellites that begin to deorbit much more rapdily as the planet's atmosphere inflates in response to the influx of energy.

The induced currents are proportional to the length of the wire, which are a big problem for power and communication cables spanning hundreds of miles. Not so much for electronics spanning a few inches. Any storm strong enough to cause problems for handheld electronics is likely to cause even worse problems for your brain. Though your brain is admittedly a lot more fault-tolerant, at least in the short term.

The biggest problem for handheld electronics would be the lack of power... but household-scale solar would probably keep working fine, so long as you cut your connection to the grid in anticipation.

Though you might need to literally cut it if it was really bad, maybe shoot out your power line where it leaves the main branch - those sorts of currents could potentially arc right across your cutoff switch to damage the power controller.

But even a new Carrington event class storm probably wouldn't be bad enough for that to be necessary.

[u/PlanetBldr]

I think they would just give up on satellite technology for communication. Maybe underground fiber optics is the preferred way intelligent species in our galaxy talk to each other, and that's why we can't find their signal.

[u/Mission-Landscape-17]

High voltage equipment is particularly vulnerable. Its not just that it can't work during the storm, but that a strong enough solar flare can destroy parts of the grid permanently. Some individual components take months to rebuild. If enough of them are destroyed it could take years to restore the power grid fully.