Scientists at Oxford University, have produced the first economic risk model that details the next big solar storm could leave Britain with £16 billion ($20.3 billion) worth of damage.
A geomagnetic storm triggered by a burst of solar energy from the sun could overwhelm the nation’s power grid, air travel, and disrupt satellite communications.
The largest ever known space weather event – known as ‘the Carrington Event’ – occurred in 1859, knocked out telegraph circuits around the world, starting fires and causing massive auroras as far south as Hawaii.
In 1989, a solar storm caused a voltage collapse of Canada’s Hydro-Québec power grid, knocking out power for six million residents for nine hours and in 2005, another storm blew out GPS communication for about ten minutes.
The Daily Telegraph said more recently, a coronal mass ejection (CME), which is a blast of plasma from the sun, narrowly missed Earth during London’s 2012 Olympic Games, which at the time, the London region was Earth-facing – could have crippled communication networks and caused mass panic.
Earth’s magnetic field protects the plant from the sun’s harmful blasts of energy, but sometimes the sun overpowers the planet’s defenses.
In April 2017, we reported that San Fransisco, New York, and Los Angeles, simultaneously experienced a power grid failure.
It was convenient at the time for many to blame the Russians; however, our report showed readers how the broad power outage was likely caused by a geomagnetic storm.
“The inability to forecast and prepare for events could be catastrophic for the economy,” Oxford University warned, adding that a powerful geomagnetic storm could cost Britain billions, due to damaging effects on critical infrastructure, business, and homes.
Their economic model details blackouts across the northeast and northwest of England, East Anglia and Wales, where power grids are not properly protected against solar radiation and where transformers in 1989 melted down from a solar storm.
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