{"id":21854,"date":"2023-11-16T23:37:20","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T15:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/violent-solar-storm-could-knock-out-the-internet-for-weeks-or-months-scientist-warns\/"},"modified":"2023-11-16T23:37:20","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T15:37:20","slug":"violent-solar-storm-could-knock-out-the-internet-for-weeks-or-months-scientist-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/violent-solar-storm-could-knock-out-the-internet-for-weeks-or-months-scientist-warns\/","title":{"rendered":"Violent solar storm could knock out the Internet \u2018for weeks or months,\u2019 scientist warns"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"img-border featured-image\">\n<p>\t<img width=\"100%\" src=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2023\/11\/brano-tLFHQIqALz0-unsplash.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1600\" class=\"skip-lazy wp-post-image\" alt=\"Photo by Bra\u0148o on Unsplash\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2023\/11\/brano-tLFHQIqALz0-unsplash.jpg?w=320&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2023\/11\/brano-tLFHQIqALz0-unsplash.jpg?w=640&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2023\/11\/brano-tLFHQIqALz0-unsplash.jpg?w=1024&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2023\/11\/brano-tLFHQIqALz0-unsplash.jpg?w=1500&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1500w\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-attachment-id=\"39567\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/2023\/11\/15\/violent-solar-storm-could-knock-out-the-internet-for-weeks-or-months-scientist-warns\/brano-tlfhqiqalz0-unsplash\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2023\/11\/brano-tLFHQIqALz0-unsplash.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all\" data-orig-size=\"5760,3240\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"brano-tLFHQIqALz0-unsplash\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2023\/11\/brano-tLFHQIqALz0-unsplash.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\"><br \/>\n\t<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A lead researcher out of George Mason University (GMU) warns that increasingly violent solar activity could potentially cause an \u201cinternet apocalypse\u201d disrupting all electronic communications on Earth, including satellite communications.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-39041\"><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe internet has come of age during a time when the sun has been relatively quiet, and now it\u2019s entering a more active time,\u201d stated principal investigator Peter Becker, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at GMU in Fairfax, Virginia. \u201cIt\u2019s the first time in human history that there\u2019s been an intersection of increased solar activity with our dependence on the internet and our global economic dependence on the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A report from George Mason University published that the Department of the U.S. Navy presented a $13.6 million grant to the college to fund state-of-the-art data mining, analysis, and scientific modeling, among other endeavors in collaboration with the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) with a primary focus on increased solar activity.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere have been a lot of (solar) flares,\u201d Becker says. \u201cFlares are when the sun brightens, and we see the radiation, and that\u2019s kind of the muzzle flash. And then the cannon shot is the coronal mass ejection (CME). So, we can see the flash, but then the coronal mass ejection can go off in some random direction in space, but we can tell when they\u2019re actually going to head towards Earth. And that gives us about 18 hours of warning, maybe 24 hours of warning, before those particles actually get to Earth and start messing with Earth\u2019s magnetic field.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Earth is bombarded with solar radiation quite often. Flares reach Earth in just minutes and, like CMEs, are harmless for those of us on the surface. This is due to Earth\u2019s magnetic field and dense atmosphere acting as a shield from cosmic radiation and charged particles emitted by our Sun.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the other hand, CMEs can be far more devastating to critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>\t<span class=\"outbrain-ad-label\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t<script type=\"text\/plain\" data-consent-needed=\"marketing\">\n\t\t\twindow.adSlotsConfig = window.adSlotsConfig || [];<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tadSlotsConfig.push( {\n\t\t\t\tslotID: '\/1049447\/Outbrain',\n\t\t\t\tslotName: 'div-gpt-ad-outbrain-ad-39041',\n\t\t\t\tsizes: [300, 250],\n\t\t\t\tslotPosition: 'mid_article'\n\t\t\t} );\n\t\t<\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While it\u2019s common to have some interference with radio and GPS from solar flares, massive geomagnetic storms caused by CMEs can induce worse outcomes; i.e. disrupting electric currents in power lines, transformers, and other electrical systems. This can potentially damage power grids, leading to power outages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to George Mason University, violent solar storms are expected to become more frequent and severe over the next decade, with activity not seen since the Carrington Event in 1859. This was the last time a CME reached Earth.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAnd then you get this kind of insidious thing where you could actually get current from ground\u2026So everybody thinks, \u2018Oh, my computer\u2019s grounded, I\u2019m okay,&#8217;\u201d but in an event like this, if you drive inductive currents to the surface of the Earth, it can almost work backwards, and you can end up actually frying things that you thought were relatively safe,\u201d Becker told Fox Weather.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What can we do to protect our electronics? Well, it doesn\u2019t sound like much, according to Becker.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf we have a warning, every minute counts because you can put satellites in safe mode. You can take transformers off-line from the grid, so they don\u2019t fry,\u201d Becker said. \u201cSo there\u2019s things you can do to mitigate the problem. And then, more long term, you\u2019re talking about hardening the internet. And that\u2019s, of course, an economic challenge because it\u2019s sort of like an insurance policy. You may never need it, and it would cost trillions to really harden the system,\u201d Becker explains.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you\u2019re reading this story on <em>Space Explored<\/em>, the good news is the internet has not been destroyed by a powerful solar storm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today, space weather is actively monitored by various space agencies. But it\u2019s true more needs to be done around hardening satellite systems, electrical grids, and Internet infrastructure to mitigate the impact of increased solar activity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What do you think of Becker\u2019s claims? Let us know in the comments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Follow Arin:<\/strong> Twitter, LinkedIn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lead researcher out of George Mason University (GMU) warns that increasingly violent solar activity could potentially cause an \u201cinternet apocalypse\u201d disrupting all electronic communications on Earth, including satellite communications. \u201cThe internet has come of age during a time when the sun has been relatively quiet, and now it\u2019s entering a more active time,\u201d stated [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21854"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}