by Don Viecelli
The first effects of the space storm started in Europe and moved east across the Atlantic to the U.S. coast as daylight broke. The solar storm was intensifying. The next twelve hours would be critical. When the Extreme Geomagnetic Storm finally hit the Earth’s magnetosphere, most of the solar wind particles just bounced off the magnetic field that protects the Earth from radiation like water on the bow of a boat. However, new effects began to emerge. In this case, because the storm was so powerful, the magnetosphere began to act like a giant electric generator, creating immense electric fields, which trapped some of the particles deep inside the North and South Poles. One positive affect would be the sightings of beautiful auroras over the next two days at much lower latitudes than normal. Adverse affects would be the beginning of significant magnetic compass disruptions around the world and the worst power blackout situation in U.S. history.
This geomagnetic storm would become known to future generations as the ‘Great Solar Storm’. It would be the first of many more to follow over the years to come. It would not remain the biggest storm in history, but it would be remembered as the one with the worst consequences. The world was not prepared for it. It woke up the world’s perception to a new kind of hazard, space storms. Maybe it was the events that succeeded the storm that created such a lasting impression on the world. Maybe it was the dawn of a new age, the age of space inhabitation. Whatever the reason, it became time to understand space weather and its effects on Earth. Space weather was no longer a distant concept. It hit close to home. People had to live in it and with it. People began to adjust to the changes.
The first real sign of trouble in the U.S. occurred just after 8:00 a.m. in the morning along the Niagara River outside of Buffalo in upstate New York at the hydro-electric power plant. The plant foreman was making his normal rounds inside the plant inspecting the operation of the large spinning electrical generators. Everything looked normal and he decided to climb up the stairs to the exit door and walk outside to inspect the transmission substation. This power plant operated just like most power plants in the world. Something has to spin the generators such as a water wheel in a river or dam, a diesel engine, a gas turbine, a steam turbine or even a nuclear reactor. The power plant produces alternating current (AC) that enters a transmission substation where large transformers convert the generator’s voltage to extremely high voltages for transmission over the power distribution grid. Hugh steel towers leave the power station and carry the electricity up to 300 miles to power substations where transformers step down the voltage to levels that can be used by thousands of homes and businesses in the community served by the power utility. This was the case in Buffalo.
Most people take the power systems for granted. Usually, only weather related storms on Earth have the capability to disrupt the power distribution grids. Sometimes, extreme heat conditions can overtax the power grids and brownouts or blackouts occur for short periods of time until the demand for electricity abates enough for normalcy to return. Everyone is happy again. Life continues. To further complicate things, the entire country in linked together by hundreds of power distribution grids that pass surplus power to areas in the country that need it. If one power grid goes down, numerous consequences occur along the chain. The grids are highly dependent upon one-another in today’s society.
The plant foreman in Buffalo was on his final inspection tour of the transmission substation outside the power plant when he heard a strange crackling noise near one of the step-up transformers. At first he couldn’t understand what was making the noise. It got louder. He approached closer. When he got within twenty feet of the first transformer, he could smell burning wires. Then he saw smoke and could feel the heat radiating outward towards him. Then the whole thing erupted in sparks and fire. He ran for his life. He made it safely to the power plant door and punched the emergency button on the outside to alert everyone else. The alarm sounded and soon people were running for the exits. Others did what they were trained to do. They tried to put out the fire and limit the damage as best as they could. They shut the transformer down, but it was too late. It was melting in front of the foreman’s eyes. It would be a complete loss. Another transformer nearby blew up. It was developing into a major crisis. The power plant was shut down. The giant water turbines continued to turn, but the generators stopped producing electricity. Power was off. A major power distribution grid was shut down. No electrical power at all was leaving the substation over those tall steel towers. It was a major disaster. The power to millions of homes and businesses all over the Northeast coast was out. The transformers would take days to replace. What caused this? The foreman was perplexed and just stood there helplessly watching the fire melt the transformers into a giant heap of twisted metal.
The solar storm was hitting Earth with its full mass of charged plasma. The electrified magnetic fields were producing massive electrical surges in the power grids causing transmission substations all over the eastern U.S. to overload and melt down. At least five transformers had failed so far and several more were damaged, the most ever caused by a solar storm. Gas and oil pipelines were also affected by induced electrical charges that would temporarily shut down monitoring and control devices. Nothing like this was ever anticipated. And the storm was just starting. It would move quickly across the U.S. as the day progressed, but thankfully, the damage would be less severe in the western half of the country. The geomagnetic storm effects would lessen substantially by nightfall, but the damage was done and the effects of the storm would last for days. It was a new experience for most people and someone in authority needed to explain what was happening to them, and soon.
Chapter 23
Washington, D.C.:
President Maxwell was sitting at his desk reading over the latest bill sent by congress waiting for his signature when the lights went off. He turned around and looked out his window at the view outside. It was a lovely day. He wondered why the electricity would go out on a day like this. It took a few seconds for the backup generator in the basement to kick in. Fred Imhoff knocked on his door and stepped into the room. “Mr. President, we have a situation developing. You might want to turn on CNN and listen in.”
President Maxwell found his remote and turned on the TV. He flipped to the CNN channel and turned up the volume. A news story was breaking about a power failure at a power plant up in Buffalo. It was causing blackouts up and down the East Coast. They were blaming it on a solar event. The story quickly turned to the solar storm and the effects it was having around the world.
Earlier in the morning, the National Emergency Council had informed the President about the geomagnetic storm effects from the solar flare and CME. It was already affecting communications, navigation and location-based systems worldwide. The Department of Defense was extremely concerned about the disruption in satellite control and space defense systems. NASA had warned of possible damage to the ISS and radiation hazard to the crew. Some of the astronauts had already been evacuated for their safety. Now the U. S. was having electrical power disruptions.
Things were getting out of control. President Maxwell had instructed Fred to round up the proper people for an emergency meeting at the White House later this morning. Fred was also working with the press relations staff to prepare a press release and statement. A press briefing was scheduled for one o’clock this afternoon. President Maxwell was going to have to tell the country what was going on and in terms they could understand. It was going to be a real challenge, he thought to himself. He barely understood what was going on.
President Maxwell and Fred listened to the CNN story in silence. Most of New York City and other towns and cities from Maine to Florida had lost power. Power utilities were trying to reroute electricity from Canada and power plants out West. More than fifty percent of the Northeast Coast population had lost power. The outage extended as far as Kansas, but things seemed to be all right further west, at least for now. The word was it would take days, not hours, to fix the damage and replace t
he transformers that had melted down from the storm. Fortunately, Europe was spared from power failures since the solar storm did not reach critical mass until daylight in the U.S. The power failures were unprecedented anywhere in the world according to CNN, and everyone in the U.S. who still had power was listening in to the news and hoping for the best.
“How bad do you think this thing is going to get, Fred?”
“I don’t know, Mr. President, but we have everyone working to correct it.”
“How’s Harry holding up at Defense? He must be pulling his hair out by now.”
“He’s running General Walton ragged. The poor guy has no national defense system to speak off. We’ve lost over half our satellites. If any country wanted to attack us from space, we would be defenseless.”
“I believe that applies both ways, Fred. Everybody is suffering the same problems we are, except maybe for this power crisis. Tell Harry I would like to see him this afternoon, after the press briefing. I need an update on the defense situation. We also need a status update on the UFO crash. He may want to bring General Walton with him. That’s fine.”
“Okay, Mr. President. I’ll set it up.
“One more thing, Fred. Get Doctor Tannenbaum on the phone for me. I want to hear how things are going on board the space station.”
“I’ll put him through as soon as I locate him, Mr. President.” Fred left the room.
President Maxwell was starting to feel the pressures of the office. Normally, he felt confident and relaxed. He had prepared his whole life for this job. He knew he had the right talents and political skills to lead this country effectively. He understood people and he liked to make decisions. He wanted to build on the momentum of his last three years in office and prepare for the next election. He had imagined all types of scenarios and world events and how he would handle them. But this was different. The problems were not what he expected to be dealing with. He would have to improvise and he would have to count on people who knew more about these things than he did. It was risky. It was life. He would have to take his chances and see how things worked out like everyone else. It sure made things interesting. He felt excited, like when he made the decision to run for President five years ago. It was the right decision. He was glad he made it. Now he would have to make a bigger decision, one that might sink his re-election chances. Was the world ready for something as strange as aliens? Was he? He needed more information and time was running out. He knew he couldn’t keep the UFO crash secret. Maybe this solar storm would make it easier to keep things secret a little while longer. It would divert world attention and give them more time to prepare. What else could go wrong, he wondered? He tried not to think the worst.
The phone on his desk rang. It was Fred. “I have Doctor Tannenbaum on the line, Mr. President. Are you ready to talk to him?”
“Sure, Fred. Put him on. Good morning, Doctor Tannenbaum. I wanted to talk to you about the astronauts on the ISS. How are things going up there?”
“Good morning, Mr. President. You probably heard we had to evacuate half the crew early this morning. It was getting too dangerous for their safety. The radiation levels from the solar storm are very high.”
The President could detect worry in Dr. Tannenbaum’s voice. “Did they make it down all right?”
“They just made it, Mr. President, before the storm hit and knocked out our communication and navigation systems. They landed twenty minutes ago in California. All five are safe. We haven’t been able to contact the remaining crewmembers since eight o’clock this morning.”
“How did they evacuate?
“The ISS has two emergency crew return vehicles. Each vehicle can hold up to seven people. We think the astronauts still on board are safe for now, but things may get worse. They’re probably in one of the radiation-shielded modules until the storm passes. They can’t use the second return vehicle until the communication and navigation control systems are restored. It’s too risky to try and land manually. They’re busy trying to save the ISS.”
“What’s wrong with the space station?”
“They were losing power from the solar storm. The aft solar panel arrays were already damaged from the explosion on Monday and they couldn’t replace the power generator. The forward arrays were affected by the storm this morning. They were on backup power systems the last time we were in contact with them. We’re trying to track them visually with our ground telescopes.”
“Can they fix it?”
“Not during the storm, Mr. President. They can’t go on EVA for at least 24 hours and we need to send them some spare parts and equipment. They’re essentially stranded up there for now.”
“What’s the worst that can happen to them, Doctor?” President Maxwell could guess the answer to the question, but he wanted to hear the facts.
“They could get severe radiation sickness, Mr. President, if the shielding inside is not adequate and they can’t use the emergency vehicle to come home. They could lose power and the space station would start to spin and fall from orbit. The solar storm is expanding our atmosphere, which increases the drag on the space station. It’s the same effect as on our low-earth orbit satellites. As long as they can maintain some power from the solar panels, they should be alright.”
“Well, keep me informed, Dr. Tannenbaum. Let me know if there is anything I can do. We don’t want to risk any more lives than we have to from this storm.”
“I’ll do that, Mr. President. Thank you for your concern. I’ll call you as soon as we get through to them.” They both hung up the phones.
Fred struck his head in the door. “How’s it going up there, Mr. President?”
“Not too good, Fred. Five astronauts were brought home this morning, but five are still on board and can’t get back right now. We lost communications with the ISS. Dr. Tannenbaum is worried about radiation exposure from the solar storm.”
“Can’t they use the emergency return vehicle to leave and come home?”
“Not until we get communication and navigation control systems working. Dr. Tannenbaum said it’s too risky to use manual systems to land the vehicle.”
“I hope things get better soon. We haven’t lost anyone in space in over eight years.”
“I know. How’s the press briefing going? Do we have a statement I can read yet?”
“Soon, Mr. President. We’re still working on the details. We had to call Doctor Henry Everest, Deputy Director of NOAA, to get his opinion on the storm. He was planning to fly here from Boulder this morning for the press briefing, but all flights were cancelled.”
“Is the meeting still on for this morning?”
“Yes, Mr. President. It’s set for 10:00 a.m. in the Roosevelt Room. The Secretaries of Commerce, Energy, Transportation and Human Services will be here. The Deputy Director of NOAA will be on conference call. They will discuss the storm situation and what effects were caused by it. Then they will discuss possible solutions and make recommendations. The results will be part of the press statement at the one o’clock press briefing. We should have plenty of time for you to prepare before the briefing.”
“Good. Send me what information you have. I need to finish what I’m doing now and then I’ll prepare for the meeting. Get Doctor Everest on the phone. I have some questions I need to ask him. Then I need the latest on the power blackout situation. We need to get power restored quickly, or a lot of people are going to be pretty mad at us, Fred. We need to find a way to prevent this from happening again.”
Fred left the room. The President continued to work on the pressing matters of the day. It would continue like this for the rest of the morning. The President asking questions and Fred trying to find the right people who could provide the answers the President was seeking. The meeting with the Cabinet Members and others started on time and lasted until lunchtime. The President didn’t have time for lunch. He had to prepare for the press briefing. He essentially would read a prepared statement that was not finished until minutes before the pr
ess briefing. The Press Secretary made copies and handed them out to the news media attendees as they entered the Press Briefing room. There would be time for only a few questions and the President would call on selected members of the press.
It was 1:00 p.m. The President left his office, walked down the stairs to the briefing room, stepped up to the podium and began to speak. “Good afternoon. Today I would like to accomplish three things at this press briefing. First, I want to assure the people of this great country that their government has things under control.” The President explained what was happening due to the solar storm; then he continued, “Electricity will be restored as quickly as possible. Air transportation will resume by the end of the day. Communication and Defense systems will be restored as quickly as possible. There is no concern for alarm.
“Second, I want to inform everyone what has caused this crisis.” The President spent a few minutes explaining what causes a solar storm. This was the first time most people in America had ever heard about solar flares and CMEs and what effects they can cause. It was just the first step in the education process and more steps were needed. The government was going to provide the tools necessary to educate the public.
“Third, I want to tell the American public what steps we are taking to prevent this from happening in the future. A new program will be started to study the effects of the sun and how to prevent them on Earth. A special committee would be commissioned and a report due in six months with specific recommendations and solutions. I am asking the public to send in suggestions to a new email address. I will use the power of the Internet to help provide the solutions we need to resolve the latest crises. We will work on this together.” The President didn’t have all the answers, but he gave them confidence and that was all he could do at the moment.