A severe solar storm hasn’t hit Earth since the mid-19th century, but space weather scientists are very worried about the next one.
This article was originally published on August 20, 2015. We all know that major storms can wreak havoc, flooding cities and decimating infrastructure. But there’s an even bigger worry than wind and rain: space weather . If a massive solar storm hit us, our technology would be wiped out. The entire planet could go dark.
If that happens, we’ve got anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour before a cloud of plasma rains down from above, interacting with our planet’s magnetosphere and triggering a geomagnetic storm. That’s when you start to see effects on the power grid. “This generates huge electrical currents in upper atmosphere of Earth,” Berger said. “Depending on how conductive the ground is, you can get large currents getting picked up by power stations and fed into the grid.
Said Grunman Environment Richard Carrington Solar Phenomena Geomagnetic Storms Carrington Event Coronal Mass Ejection Solar Cycle Space Weather Solar Flare Thomas Berger Daniel Baker Technology Internet Light Sources Aurora Joe Gurman ESA Vigil Space Plasmas Gizmodo
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