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Re: (meteorobs) Massive solar flare
Shielding from the high-energy protons, electrons and ions of a CME consists of 2 parts: The Earth's magnetic field, which directs the particles into the polar regions, and the atmosphere. The latter works simply by virtue of the density of air and the height of the atmosphere. This guarantees a high probability most of the particles getting past the magnetosphere will be stopped by the random chance collision with an air molecule before it reaches the Earth's surface. Since the air is much denser near the surface at low altitudes, persons at high altitudes or on planes receive a much higher dose. Anyway, there is no way this mechanism can "fail". That would mean a spontaneous "hole" would have to open up through the whole atmosphere above, which is absolutely "impossible" from statistical physics considering the number of atoms involved. Another consideration is the amount of shielding provided by a typical wood house. If you do a simple calculation of the number of atoms in a column of atmosphere 50km high compared to the number in a few inches of wood or sheetrock, you will see the atmospheric shielding is several orders of magnitude better, and the house really won't make much difference anyway... So, one need not be an "expert" to know what not to be worried about.
Mike Linnolt
--- Jill and Nevyn <mirage@gilanet.com> wrote:
> Well the experts have spoken...no
> problem...hmmmm...you know I have two
> grandchildren and my email to my son was: Keep them
> indoors. Sometimes our
> experts are not always correct...and in this I think
> I would rather make an
> error on the side of over caution. From what I have
> gathered so far our
> atmosphere shields us from most of this radiation.
> But what if something
> fails? Anyway thanks for any info.
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