in 2013 your earth’s yellow Sun’s activity, such as solar flares and coronal Mass ejections, will reach a peak in its 11 cycle.
Every 11 years, as the Sun’s magnetic field reaches its maximum, the field “snaps” and the solar poles flip. The Sun has a little nutty and sporadically spits out billions of tons of charged particles.
Will this be the year when a massive CME hits the planet and throws us back to the 18th century?
If we get hit by a blast like the one in 1859, we are in serious trouble. Aurora Borealis was seen as far south as the Caribbean. In North American people could read at night. Telegraph systems were blown out, some even starting on fire. Some telegraph systems were so supercharged that even when disconnected from their power sources they could still transmit.
The 1859 event didn’t affect civilization very much because there was hardly anything that used electricity then.
Our technology is not, in general, near “hardened” enough to withstand an 1859 event.
And it is only a matter of time before such an event strikes again.
Remember in August 2003 when some high-voltage lines, which because of the heat, stretched and sagged into some trees and, BAMMO, power-grid lost in Ontario and Northeastern states all the way to Michigan. That interruption was only for a couple days. Imagine the interruption and then the power doesn’t come back on. Most cities would be nine meals away from total meltdown, lethal chaos.
To brighten your day a bit more.
Here is a video from NASA about solar maximum.