That’s why the White House released its National Space Weather Strategy on Thursday.
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“Any space-based instrument is also at risk from space weather, due to direct damage from the solar wind or from communications and control malfunction”.
We hear and read about EMP’s, solar flares and coronal mass ejections. Such an event would make cellphones, credit cards, the internet and electric lights useless. Welcome to the future, where we don’t just have to worry about terrestrial weather anymore.
The last significant geomagnetic solar storm came in 1859 and caused telegraph lines to explode; leading to fires in offices and lack of power across Europe and North America.
If intense enough, the aurora could disrupt the Earth’s satellite communications, navigation systems and other electronic systems. Thus, the effects of a solar flare would be far more devastating today than in 1859.
According to John P. Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy, “Space weather is a naturally occurring phenomenon that has the potential to cause substantial detrimental effects on the Nation’s economic and social well-being”.
The initiative is, essentially, a common-sense approach – but it’s a huge step for the USA government to actually acknowledge the seriousness of space weather and try to put a plan in place to deal with it.
The action plan proposes studies on the possible impact of space weather events on critical national infrastructure as necessary prerequisite to implementing effective response. And in October 2014, Digital Journal reported on an X-Class event, the most powerful kind of solar flare. The USA government has a plan.
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The White House developed plans and strategies to mitigate the impact of space-weather events. The plan stipulates that various government agencies including NASA, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation work together to complete, within the next year, an assessment of sensor technologies needed for better forecasting.
