MidReal Story
Secrets of the Hidden Core
Scenario: One day, it was discovered that in the inner core of the planet, there was another civilization.
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In high school, I learned that the Earth’s magnetic field is generated by the movement of molten iron in the outer core.
That explanation made sense to me at the time, so I didn’t think much of it.
But when I was asked to join this project and operate the machinery that would take us to the inner core, I followed suit and read my coworkers’ reports on the subject.
It turns out, we’ve been wrong all along.
For years, our leaders have been trying to model the Earth’s magnetic field using that outdated understanding of the planet’s core and its motion.
They’ve all failed, obviously, or we wouldn’t be here now.
But after a decade of trying, they finally realized it was because they were starting with the wrong assumptions.
It’s not just that we don’t know how to accurately model the Earth’s magnetic field.
It’s that the current model, which we use to predict solar storms, is wrong as well.
We’re just lucky that most solar storms are weak.
If a storm arrives when Earth’s magnetic field is in the wrong alignment, it could be strong enough to take down our entire electrical grid, or at least a large part of it.
Our technology would be useless until we could reboot everything, which would take time.
We wouldn’t be able to get water to people living in high-rise buildings or keep food refrigerated.
Cars wouldn’t work, so public transportation would be down, too.
Emergency services would be limited to what they could do on foot or by bicycle (if they had any bikes stored on site).
We wouldn’t even be able to use our cell phones to call for help because our cell towers would be down.
And all of this assumes that a storm wouldn’t be strong enough to start fires in our homes, or worse.
It’s not a pretty picture, but that’s what life would be like if we were hit by a strong solar storm while Earth’s magnetic field was not aligned properly.
The only way to predict storms with any accuracy is with an accurate model of the Earth’s magnetic field and enough computer power to run simulations for long enough to know when one is coming and how strong it will be.
And that model has to start with a good understanding of what’s going on in the inner core as well as the rest of the planet.
That’s why we’re here today.
To do what others have tried and failed to do for years: create a working model of Earth’s magnetic field and save civilization from a catastrophic solar storm.
I was excited, but also nervous when I woke up in my bunk and realized that today was the day.