Could a Massive Solar Storm cause an Internet Apocalypse?

In March of this year, a solar storm with a fairly mild G2 level caused some fairly far-reaching, awesome auraborealis “northern lights” in the sky, as well as some frustrating internet fluctuations.  It made many scientists start to ponder, what would happen if a severe solar storm descended upon our increasingly tech-dependent world?

Some people are calling it a possible “Internet Apocalypse,” and if it happens, it would be caused by a massive solar storm, also known as a geomagnetic storm, or to put it precisely, a coronal mass ejection, out in the cosmos. The internet, transit and telecommunications systems, base station, and power grids might all be affected by a solar storm, which would bring modern civilization to a standstill. The Sun’s whirling convection currents in the top levels of its atmosphere occasionally spew billions of tonnes of magnetized plasma into space.

Reportedly, the internet, telephones, and other electronic devices can all be disrupted by a large geomagnetic storm. When the sun ejects a large bubble of superheated fuel known as plasma, weather events occur. This bubble is known as a coronal mass ejection, and it contains a cloud of electrically conducting protons and electrons. Whenever these molecules collide with the magnetic restraint that surrounds the planet, the magnetic discipline distorts and weakens.

According to Space.com, what the solar storm scientists are talking about is more than 100 amperes. 100 amperes is equivalent to the electrical service provided to many households, so currents this size can cause internal damage in the components, leading to large scale power outages. If a large geomagnetic storm occurs right now, it might have an impact on the vast majority of electrical ways that people use daily. If it occurs, it may result in trillions of dollars in financial damage and put the lives of vast swaths of the world’s population in jeopardy simply because we rely on electricity and evolving technology for everything, even medical crises. It would return human knowledge to the Middle Ages.

Not only may these geomagnetic storms destroy the internet, but they can also fry the delicate electronics on satellites in the sky, causing complete interruption of telephones that are linked by these satellites. By means of subsea cables, these storms can also affect the Internet and cellular service. While the cables themselves will be undamaged, the storms will damage the digital and power connectors that are connected to them, causing interruptions that may last anywhere from three to six months.

Nowadays the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration uses the Geomagnetic Storms scale to measure the strength of these solar eruptions. The “G scale” has a rating from 1 to 5 with G1 being minor and G5 being extreme. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, geomagnetic storms have already been accurately recorded, and new scientific evidence from Antarctic ice core samples has shown some horrifying confirmation of the same increase.

For example, the Carrington Event, which occurred in 1859 and was graded G5, is the most important known report of a geomagnetic storm. The energy of the Carrington Event is mostly determined based on current observations of Earth’s magnetic field by the observatory.These suggest that geomagnetic storms cause induced currents to flow through the electrical grid, which includes transformers, relays, and sensors.

Today, a geomagnetic storm of the same intensity as the Carrington Event would affect far more than telegraph wires and could be catastrophic. With the ever-growing dependency on electricity and emerging technology, any disruption could lead to trillions of dollars of monetary loss and risk to life dependent on the systems. The storm would affect a majority of the electrical systems that people use every day.

According to Sci Tech Daily, in addition to electrical failures, communications would be disrupted on a worldwide scale. Internet service providers could go down, which in turn would take out the ability of different systems to communicate with each other. High-frequency communication systems such as ground-to-air, shortwave and ship-to-shore radio would be disrupted. Satellites in orbit around the Earth could be damaged by induced currents from the geomagnetic storm burning out their circuit boards. This would lead to disruptions in satellite-based telephone, internet, radio and television.

Experts say it is only a matter of time before the Earth is hit by another geomagnetic storm. A Carrington Event-size storm would be extremely damaging to the electrical and communication systems worldwide with outages lasting into the weeks. If the storm is larger, the results would be catastrophic for the world with potential outages lasting months if not longer. Even with space weather warnings from NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, the world would still have only a few minutes to a few hours notice.

Therefore, scientists agree it is critical to continue researching ways to protect electrical systems against the effects of geomagnetic storms, for example by installing devices that can shield vulnerable equipment like transformers and by developing strategies for adjusting grid loads when solar storms are about to hit. In short, it’s important to work now to minimize the disruptions from the next Carrington Event.

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