Re: solar flares effecting anyone else?

[Sean Donelan <sean () donelan com>]

On Wed, 11 April 2001, John Todd wrote:
>  From a terrestrial perspective, the recent solar flare activity would 
> have a much more noticeable effect on circuits that have long, 
> inductive (copper) loops that collect those pesky electron charges. 
> In North America, I imagine that this is mostly local loop issues, 
> since the majority (everything?) that is of any appreciable distance 
> is fiber.  It is perhaps the case that the Canadians and Alaskans may 
> see more of an issue even on their short local loops, since the more 
> polar segments of the Earth bear the brunt of the storms (if I recall 
> my astronomy courses correctly.)

April 2, 2001   Sol             Solar flare

April 3, 2001   Phoenix, AZ     Under Investigation (Qwest)
April 3, 2001   Elkton, MD      Fiber Cut (ATT)
April 3, 2001   Columbus, GA    Under Investigation (Bellsouth)

April 4, 2001   Northeastern US Power supply (Sprint)
April 5, 2001   Dullas, VA      Power supply (AOL/TW)
April 6, 2001   Joilet, IL      Power supply (Ameritech/SBC)

April 6, 2001   Alamagorda, NM  Fiber cut (Qwest)
April 6, 2001   Jacksonville, FL Under investigation (Bell South)
April 8, 2001   Loredo, TX      Power supply (Southwestern Bell)

Its probably not statistically significant, but the hit on power
supplies after the recent solar flare did catch my eye.  I don't
recall a similar rise occuring in the past.

But I can't compare the number of power supply problems to the
same period last year because ATIS Network Reliability Steering
Committee has removed all of its public reports from its free
portion of the web site, and I don't really want to spend $50
to buy a copy.