"...this will provide between 15 and 60 minutes warning before the particles reach us..."
Which is time to do what, exactly; don pointy tinfoil hats?
The delay of the SpaceX Falcon launch - slated for December 2014 - has had a knock-on impact on another NASA mission, with the agency announcing that its DSCOVR blast-off will have to wait until after 29 January. A joint NASA/NOAA project, DSCOVR (the Deep Space Climate Observatory) will provide real-time solar wind monitoring …
Presumably change network topology, connectedness, or similar? I'm sure I've read something about it but can't remember where. In the meantime, you might read this related article ...
http://arxiv.org/abs/1406.7024
"Assessing the impact of space weather on the electric power grid based on insurance claims for industrial electrical equipment"
Schrijver et al.
Maybe to hit the power "off" switch and shut down the grid... oh wait. That will take down FB and then there will be: "a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."
Maybe to hit the power "off" switch and shut down the grid... oh wait. That will take down FB and then there will be: "a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."
Nope, but office worker productivity might spike for a while!
What is always done when advanced warning of a major increase in solar radiation flux is about to occur.
Shut down sensitive electronics on satellites and energy grid providers watch for geomagnetic storms that could trip major sections of the power grid.