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A new article by an assistant professor at the University of California, Irvine details the potential effects a super solar storm could have on our heavily internet-dependent world.
The conclusion? A particularly strong solar storm could have devastating effects on undersea internet cables, a crucial part of the global internet infrastructure. Without greater mitigation efforts against these effects, the study says we could be headed for an “Internet apocalypse.”
Solar storms and the electricity grid
Solar storms, also known as geomagnetic storms, cause massive solar flares that result in coronal mass ejections (CMEs), large expulsions of magnetic and plasma fields. Massive solar tsunamis on the Sun’s surface can send particularly powerful CMEs rushing toward Earth at speeds of up to several million miles per hour. While Earth’s atmosphere protects us from the radioactive effects of such storms, they can wreak havoc on our electronics.
These solar super storms have the potential to cause lengthy blackouts, as solar winds hit the Earth’s magnetosphere, causing millions, if not billions, of dollars in damage to electrical equipment, including satellites. And this is not just a hypothetical scenario. In 1989, a solar storm cut the power supply to more than 6 million people for nine hours in Quebec and the surrounding area. He even shut down the Toronto Stock Exchange for three hours by disrupting what was supposed to be a “fault tolerant” computer.
What would an “Internet apocalypse” look like?
In her article, titled “Solar Superstorms: Planning for an Internet Apocalypse”, Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi of the University of California, Irvine presents a hypothetical scenario in which Internet outages could persist for long periods after severe solar storms, even for prolonged periods after the current returns to the network.
Abdu Jyothi states that the regional internet infrastructure is actually surprisingly robust against solar storms. Indeed, the optical fiber is not affected by geomagnetically induced currents which are typical of solar storms. However, the electronic repeaters used to amplify optical signals in long submarine cables are very vulnerable to these currents, and a strong solar storm has the potential to cut global connectivity by disrupting these cables.
In an interview with WIREDAbdu Jyothi pointed out that she began to think about the effects of solar storms on our internet infrastructure when she saw how unprepared the world was for the COVID-19 pandemic. “Our infrastructure is not prepared for a large-scale solar event. We have a very limited understanding of the extent of the damage,” said Abdu Jyothi.
A lack of data
As geomagnetic storms are relatively rare, we only have data on three major events that have occurred in relatively recent times: the previously mentioned Quebec blackout in 1989 and the events of 1921 and 1859. All of these events occurred before the advent of the modern Internet.
Not only are submarine cables vulnerable, but services such as SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service would also be particularly vulnerable to a solar super storm, as they orbit 340 miles (550 kilometers) above the surface of Earth. Abdu Jyothi points out that there is currently no model for exactly how a strong solar storm would unfold in today’s internet dependent environment. She hopes her study will lead to renewed attention from global industries to the potentially destructive effects of solar storms on the connectivity of our world.
Importantly, Abdu Jyothi says that given that the last strong solar storm occurred over three decades ago, we could be close to the next incident which could cause massive blackouts, potentially resulting in billions of dollars in damage to the planet. electronics and lost revenue due to internet outages – according to Forbes, Internet outages could cost the US economy $ 7.2 billion a day. That’s a number that will only continue to grow, especially as the world increasingly turns to remote working amid the ongoing pandemic.
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