Image: Wikimedia Commons
Stars are dynamic celestial bodies. In the core of our Sun, for example, there are a series of chemical reactions going on all the time. Some of them produce a certain amount of energy capable of releasing protons and electrons. When these elements are concentrated, they can trigger what is called a solar storm—basically, a series of superheated particles release. These particles, in turn, can travel hundreds of thousands of kilometers, and reach other celestial bodies — or even human objects that roam through space, such as satellite networks. And that’s where the problem lies.
Scientists have long known that the consequences of intense solar storms can be disastrous. It is possible that they cause, for example, the destruction of artificial satellites, interference in telephone systems and the failure of electricity networks.
New research led by a scientist at the University of California in the United States, however, indicates that the situation could be even worse.
During the Special Interest Group on Computer Machines (SIGCOMM 2021) conference held last August, Sangeentha Abdu Jyothi presented a study in which she said the next solar superstorm could damage the world’s internet infrastructure — and leave millions of people without network access for months. Something that, as you can imagine, would be catastrophic for our modern way of life.
“What really got me thinking about this is that, with the pandemic, we saw how unprepared the world was. There was no protocol to deal with this effectively, and the same happens with the internet”, said Jyothi in an interview with the magazine WIRED. “Our infrastructure is not prepared for a large-scale solar event.”
While extreme solar storms (also called, in scientific jargon, coronal mass ejections) are relatively rare, they are still likely to occur. Scientists estimate that the probability of extreme space weather directly impacting the Earth is between 1.6% to 12% each decade.
This would affect, for example, the long undersea internet cables, which are equipped with repeaters to boost their optical signal, spaced at intervals of approximately 50 to 150 kilometers. All because these repeaters are vulnerable to geomagnetic currents. As a result, entire cables can become useless if a single repeater goes offline, according to Jyothi’s research. “If undersea cables fail in a certain region, then entire continents can be separated from each other,” the scientist wrote.
Countries at high latitudes — such as the United States and the United Kingdom — are much more susceptible to solar weather than nations at lower latitudes. In the case of a catastrophic geomagnetic storm, it is the high-latitude nations that are most likely to be excluded from the grid first.
“The economic impact of a one-day Internet outage in the United States is estimated to be over $7 billion,” explained Abdu Jyothi in his article. “What if the network remains down for days or even months?”
In history, two storms of this magnitude have been recorded: one in 1859 and the other in 1921. One such incident, called the Carrington Event, created such a severe geomagnetic disturbance on Earth that telegraph wires exploded, and northern lights—usually visible only up close. from the planet’s poles—were seen from elsewhere. Minor storms can also have an impact. One in March 1989, for example, blocked the entire Canadian province of Quebec for nine hours.
If we are not to risk witnessing a tragedy, network operators need to start taking the threat of extreme solar weather seriously as the global Internet infrastructure expands. Placing more cables at lower latitudes is a good start, says Abdu Jyothi, as is developing resilience tests that focus on the effects of large-scale network failures.
When the next big solar storm explodes on our star, people on Earth will have about 13 hours to prepare for its arrival, the researcher added. Let us hope that we are ready to make the most of this time, when it inevitably comes.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiZ2h0dHBzOi8vcGxheWNyYXp5Z2FtZS5jb20vMjAyMS8wOS8xMC9uZXh0LXNvbGFyLXN0b3JtLWNvdWxkLWNhdXNlLXRlY2hub2xvZ2ljYWwtY2F0YXN0cm9waGUtc3R1ZHktc2F5cy_SAQA?oc=5
2021-09-10 07:33:30Z
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