As the sun continues to enter the peak of its 11-year cycle of magnetic activity, scientists around the world are becoming increasingly concerned about the possibility that a solar flare—a plasma cloud of charged particles—emitted by a solar superstorm could destroy global electronics networks with as little as a 15-minute warning.
“Our message is, don’t panic, but do prepare – a solar superstorm will happen one day and we need to be ready for it,” Professor Paul Cannon of Great Britain’s Royal Academy of Engineering said.
However, scientists are facing a number of problems in preparing equipment for the potential arrival of solar flares. Currently, any warning of a solar flare is provided by the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite launched in 1997. The satellite is aging quickly, however, and its replacement satellite isn’t expected to be launched by NASA until 2014.
In addition, other satellites critical to the national infrastructure of several countries, including the U.S., are relatively unprotected against solar magnetic emissions. Geomagnetic storms can also interfere with radio navigation systems and ground positioning systems, causing them to provide false information, as well as severely damage or destroy the national electrical grid.
“As the loss of core systems leads to failure in other, dependent systems, a cascade of system failure can result…the potential for a severe space weather event to set off a cascade of failures in critical systems has implications for national security,” a study completed by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences warned. The study adds that preemptive protection measures need to be developed now in preparation for the possibility of a solar storm.
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