What will happen in 2012, which theory have scientific backup and what can be done on this.

This year we already arrived at the year of 2012. if some of us already read, there are many hoaxes and theories about what will happen in this year especially at 21.12.2012. some of the theory are:

1. earth sudden polar shift

2. huge solar storm

3. huge flood because of the ice at the south and north pole melts after the quick polar shift

4. end of time

5. nibiru approaching

6. we are heading to the dark rift or the point where earth, moon, sun and black hole at the center of milky way galaxy will be in a straight line and this is also known as a galactic allignment.

7. and many others.

Among these theories,  huge solar storm is the most appealing theory to the scientist. even NASA have gave warning on a solar storm will be here at 2012, and the warning was made since 2006, and repeated again at 2010. then at 2011 NASA move the date to a wider range become 2012-2013.



Solar storm usually become more powerful at the solar maximum phenomenon. solar maximum is a process of sun shifting the magnetic poles, north pole will become the south and south pole will become the north pole. and this occur every 11 years. the last time this occur was at 2001. so the next one will probably happen in 2012.

If a solar storm occur this year, first the wave will be detected by the ACE satellite. ACE satellite was specialized to monitor the speed, composition and magnetic field of the solar wind. and during solar storm it will detect the wave as a powerful enough to make damage on earth or will it be safe, and also it will detect the direction of the wave, whether it is northward of southward. the northward wave can be repelled by earth magnetic field, but if the wave is southward, it have potential to do damage on earth.



so what we hope here is even if the solar storm occur, the wave is directed northward and the energy of the wave is not too high. but what will happen if it is directed southward and have tremendous energy. first, today we have many satellites orbiting the earth, and this will increase the probability of the wave affecting the satellite. this high energy wave will make any electrical and electronic devices including satellites, electric generators, cellphones, etc. become overload and damaged.

if this wave really smash the earth, satellite will be destroyed, gps cannot work, electric generators for towns will be wiped out because of the electrical overload. then we will be left out of electric for a few months because it takes time to replace the electric generators. the more town affected by this, the more time will be needed to replace the generators. our living today depends too much with electric. water pumping, food processing, hospitals machines cannot work without electric. so we may have a basic supply crisis. prizes of foods and other basic needs may increase uncontrollably. we may face a chaos if this really happened.

what can be done?
here we have some solutions. if we cannot get the information from the ACE satellite, we still have a last sign from the solar storm itself. it is the aurora. at the time the solar storm arrived at the atmosphere, it will react with the gases there and produce an aurora even at the equator. we may be lucky if this happen at night because the aurora is easily visible at night.

Picture of aurora

then, if you see the aurora, quickly shut down all electrical and electronic devices that you have and waits until the aurora faded. this may save your electrical devices from overload. if you have more authority, you can propose to shut down the electrical generators of the town. about the food and water supply, i think we cannot do much about this, because we don't have time to buy food anymore after we saw the aurora. if we buy before it happen, also we are not sure this will surely happen or not. so it is up to you about the supply. the practical thing to do is shut down any electrical devices after seeing the aurora.

solar storm is not gonna happen in 2012 only. it can happen anytime, especially during the solar maximum. so if it happen in your life, make sure you do things that are supposed to do. finally, i hope huge solar storm will never occur in our lifetime =).

                                     This picture shows a solar storm. credit: NASA