Sadly, no. This has nothing to do with any remake of "Dynasty."
This is related to a tremendous solar "sneeze" that occurred on September 1, 1859 that flung a ball of solar snot, also known as "plasma", so powerful that, beginning less than 24 hours later, communications systems world wide were severely disrupted (1). Considering that all they had back in those days was the telegraph, this seems fairly significant. The plasma eruption itself (more properly called a Coronal Mass Ejection, a term I'll have to remember the next time I have a particularly wet sneeze) was associated with a solar flare that was observed by one of England's foremost solar astronomers, Richard Carrington.
Carrington also reportedly, at that moment, coined the phrase, "Oh, THIS can't be good."
On that morning, he was capturing the likeness of an enormous group of sunspots. Suddenly, before his eyes, two brilliant beads of blinding white light appeared over the sunspots, intensified rapidly, and became kidney-shaped. Realizing that he was witnessing something unprecedented and "being somewhat flurried by the surprise," Carrington later wrote, "I hastily ran to call someone to witness the exhibition with me. On returning within 60 seconds, I was mortified to find that it was already much changed and enfeebled." He and his witness watched the white spots contract to mere pinpoints and disappear.
It was 11:23 AM. Only five minutes had passed.
And, indeed, it wasn't good. Aside from pretty much everyone on the planet, including those in the western hemisphere tropics, being able to read the newspaper by the light of the aurora display in the pre-dawn hours of September 2nd,
Even more disconcerting, telegraph systems worldwide went haywire. Spark discharges shocked telegraph operators and set the telegraph paper on fire. Even when telegraphers disconnected the batteries powering the lines, aurora-induced electric currents in the wires still allowed messages to be transmitted.
Coincidentally, two entrepreneurs in a storefront office near Times square also chose that morning to begin operation of their ill-fated "telegraph sex" service, so it took scientists quite a while to figure out what caused what.
So, my attention was called to this event initially this morning by a reference in Dr. Jeff Masters' blog on Weather Underground in which he discusses his experience of a similar, but not nearly as powerful, event on March 13, 1989. The EMP burst from this "Baby Carrington" merely disrupted HF (Ham) radio transmissions. Oh, yeah, it also fried a chunk of the power grid in Quebec causing a major blackout. For six million people.
The point being that an EMP event of the magnitude of the 1859 Carrington Event could have near civilization-destroying consequences. Pretty much every device that operates on electric current that's not stored in a Faraday cage (2) could potentially become instantly and permanently worth less than a bag of Cheetos or a lump of coal. So much of the power grid could be instantly fried that it could take literally years to restore power to most folks. The vast majority of folks living in "advanced" societies could pretty much kiss access to food and fresh water goodbye after a few weeks.
The good news is that researchers have figured out that events of such magnitude happen about once every five hundred years, on average, and usuually only during the peak of the eleven-year solar activity cycle, which is not to occur until 2012 (some year as the Mayan calendar runs out . . . huh!). More good news is that we do have a satellite in orbit, the Advance Composition Explorer (ACE) that can provide 15-45 minutes' warning that Earth's magnetic shield is about to be on the receiving end of a Hines Ward downfield block.
The first bad news is the "on average" part. Just ask the folks in the US Upper Midwest about "100-year floods". The other bad news is that the ACE satellite is well past its sell-by date and there's no replacement in the pipeline even though the cost of a new one would probably amount to about half what AIG execs received in annual bonuses this year (and they didn't even say "thanks"). Aaaaaaand, finally, from the bad news department, with the way our current power grid (and pretty much every electrically dependent piece of our infrastructure) is configured, there's likely no way that even significant fraction off it could be protected from destruction even with 45 minutes' warning.
More gory and technical details and discussion can be found in the articles linked below, though they're not nearly as amusing. Actually, they're not amusing at all. However, the comments appended to the New Scientist article are amusing. In a sick and twisted sort of way. They appear to be almost entirely from wingnutz bent on blaming Obama for the Katrina disaster (or something), making the comments section more like No Scientist. I'd really like to make a counter comment, but I'd have to subscribe to the magazine to do so. Which costs $$. Which I haven't got, at the moment. Maybe I could get an AIG exec to gift me?
Anyway, glad I could brighten your day. (3)
New Scientist - Space Storm Alert
NASA Carrington Super Flare
(1) AFAIK, this is NOT an April Fool's joke.
(2) Apparently, this guy, Michael Faraday, was a descendant of the guy on "Lost" who went waaaay further back in time when . . . ahhh, I've already said too much.
(3) This issue was diaried over a week ago by xaxnar. This far more well-written and detailed piece received a total of eleven comments. Probably because of the reference to "Grand Guignol" in the title. Not all that many Kossacks are into estate-bottled Rhone wines, I suppose. Heh.