The possibility of a geomagnetic solar storm that can upset communications satellites, GPS systems, air travel as well as lights, computers and telephones for days, months or even years has not descended on people yet.
On the 25th, there was a huge hole in the Sun due to solar storms. It paved the way to a stream of particles assaulting the Earth, according to ibtimes. They are emanating from a coronal hole on the sun that is facing the Earth.
Due to solar storms, the sun tends to throw some radiation that heats and expands the external atmosphere. Hence, it would be quite a struggle for satellite communications to enter. A lot of communications would be blocked out, leading to lack of GPS navigation, mobile phone signal and satellite TV.
Moreover, due to higher currents in the the Earth's magnetic field, there could be a huge surge of electricity in power lines, which would affect electrical transformers as well as power stations, blacking out electricity for a while in an area. However, this tends to take place only in high altitude regions.
Recently, at a meeting of space weather specialists from academics and industry, Louis Lanzerotti, distinguished research professor at NJIT's Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research, described how a huge, well-timed solar storm would affect the modern technology-based world.
"Since the development of the electrical telegraph in the 1840s, space weather processes have affected the design, implementation and operation of many engineered systems, at first on Earth and now in space," noted Lanzerotti. "As the complexity of such systems increases, as new technologies are invented and deployed, and as humans have ventured beyond Earth's surface, both human-built systems and humans themselves become more susceptible to the effects of Earth's space environment."
"Voltage corrections may be required and false alarms triggered on some protection devices," US Space Weather Prediction Center said.
It is a kind of situation that is called a "low probability but high-impact event" by space scientists, global insurance corporations and government agencies. As it is taken as a serious event by Department of Homeland Security (DHS), NASA as well as the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), it requires heavy "research, forecasting and mitigation strategy."
