Solar Storm Could Do $2 Trillion in Damage
Posted on April 9, 2017 Comments (0)
I read an interesting article from NASA recently, Near Miss: The Solar Superstorm of July 2012
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By extrapolating the frequency of ordinary storms to the extreme, he calculated the odds that a Carrington-class storm would hit Earth in the next ten years.
The answer: 12%.
Our high technology is far more at risk than most people appreciate. I don’t understand why the odds are so high (given that the last such event was in 1859 but I would guess there are sensible reasons for them to calculate such high odds. Others (in a quick web search) offer lower odds, but still 7 or 8% of such an event in the next 10 years.
The 2012 event would have done a great deal of damage. Luckily it was directed away from the sun in a direction away from where the earth was at the time. NASA has satellites arrayed around the sun (even where the earth isn’t) and one of those was able to capture data on the event.
There is also disagreement about how much damage such a solar storm would cause on earth. The main direct damage is expected to be done to the power system (of the USA and the rest of the world).
Related: Solar Storm (2006) – photo of Solar Eruption (2006) – Solar Flares May Threaten GPS (2007) – Magnetic Portals Connect Sun and Earth (2008)
NASA explored this idea in a webcast:
Categories: Science, Technology
Tags: economy, Engineering, NASA, Science, space, Technology
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