Episode 6- Space Weather

Set your phasers to FUN! The dads get their geek on with two special guests to talk about how space weather could impact the electrical grid. Other topics include the use of aluminum foil as personal protective equipment, the technical specs on a No. 2 pencil, and Erik's love of the short lived show "Revolution" and that Star Trek movie where they needed to go get the whale and bring it to the future because aliens. Also, Rob speaks!!!

Notes from the chat

Talk to your kids: 

https://www.ready.gov/kids/know-the-facts/space-weather

http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/spaceweather/en/

The Science:

http://www.noaa.gov/resource-collections/space-weather

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

The Academics:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mike_Hapgood/publication/248350425_Towards_a_scientific_understanding_of_the_risk_from_extreme_space_weather/links/00b7d52da8f06ef9f2000000.pdf

Special Guests

We were lucky to be joined by two special guests who were classmates of Disaster Dad Erik at Georgetown. 

Denny- An Emergency Operations Program Manager at a nuclear power plan, is responsible for dealing with the fire/EMS/security issues associated with the plant along with any radiological incidents or plant failure. In this role, Denny is concerned about extraterrestrial weather and the impact it can have on the power grid and distribution of electricity. 

Jason- A meteorologist that began his career as a forecaster in the US Air Force, providing terrestrial and space weather support to forces all around the world from Europe to Southeast Asia. Jason now forecasts within the National Weather Service, and serves as an Incident Meteorologist that deploys to disaster incidents anywhere in the country (mainly wildfires) in order to provide on-site weather support to Incident Management Teams. Jason also volunteers at his county's Office of Emergency Management. He recently expanded his knowledge-base in emergency management by completing a master's degree in Georgetown University's Emergency and Disaster Management program.