Humanity unprepared for solar storm threat, scientists warn

Solar storms can cause significant disruptions in satellite operations, electronic devices, and power systems, potentially leading to prolonged power outages. In a worst-case scenario, society could be plunged into darkness for years. Despite the frequency of these phenomena, public awareness remains insufficient.

There have not yet been storms strong enough to paralyze the world, but before the electrification era, there were storms that could cause chaos today. Research published in "Nature Communications" in 2022 reveals a powerful storm occurred about 9,200 years ago. This is troubling, especially since it happened during a period of solar minimum, which occurs cyclically every 11 years.

This discovery suggests that dangerous solar storms can occur unexpectedly, even when solar activity appears low. Unfortunately, no remedies for such phenomena have been developed, and humanity has not formulated effective action plans for such an eventuality.

These enormous storms are currently not sufficiently included in risk assessments. It is of the utmost importance to analyze what these events could mean for today’s technology and how we can protect ourselves, stated study co-author Raimund Muscheler from Lund University in Sweden.

In extreme cases, such storms could damage key components of the global power grid, such as large transformers, which take up to 15 years to build and cannot be easily replaced in case of failure.

Only two countries, Germany and South Korea, produce them for export. Each transformer weighs hundreds of tons and would require reinforced bridges and widened roads to transport. In North America, only a handful of vehicles are capable of moving them, points out Dr. Peter Pry, executive director at the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, which advises the U.S. Congress on national security issues.

Currently, satellites can directly monitor solar flares, but discovering storms from the past requires intensive research. Researchers focus on searching for cosmogenic radionuclides, which are radioactive isotopes formed by atmospheric collisions of charged solar particles with elements.

These can be tracked in natural records such as tree rings and ice cores. The analysis of cores from Antarctica and Greenland by researchers revealed an unusual increase in beryllium-10 and chlorine-36 about 9,200 years ago, indicating a powerful solar storm during that period.

Scientists emphasize the need for further research to detect previous extreme storms, hoping to discover patterns in the occurrence of such events.