NASA confirmed this week the sun has hit a peak in its 11-year cycle, a stage where its northern and south poles flip, and the sun transitions from its calm condition to an “active and stormy state.”Given the powerful solar flares the sun emits during this phase, there is widespread speculation the peak period — which lasts about a year — could result in internet disruption across the globe. A 2021 study out of the University of California discovered severe solar flares could cripple the internet for weeks at a time. Solar flares are significant bursts of energy that bounce off the sun while it’s in its chaotic state, which is known as “solar maximum.” It is when the sun reaches this stage in its 11-year cycle that the Northern Lights can be seen from Earth most prominently. The flares, or “solar storms,” can also disturb internet and GPS satellites orbiting in the atmosphere and to power grids on Earth, which can lead to ongoing blackouts. . NASA, along with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel, during a teleconference on Tuesday confirmed the sun is now in its solar maximum period, with the peak still ahead. “During solar maximum, the number of sunspots, and therefore, the amount of solar activity, increases,' said Jamie Favors, director of NASA's space weather program. “This increase in activity provides an exciting opportunity to learn about our closest star, but also causes real effects (on) Earth and throughout our solar system.” “While the sun has reached the solar maximum period, the month that solar activity peaks on the sun will not be identified for months or years,” added Elsayed Talaat, director of space weather operations at NOAA. .Dr. Dibyendu Nandi, a physicist from the IISER Kolkata Center of Excellence in Space Sciences in India, told the Daily Mail these powerful solar storms can disrupt satellite communication services and geomagnetic power grids. “The most intense (solar) storms can sometimes result in catastrophic orbital decay of low Earth orbiting satellites and disrupt satellite based services such as communications and navigational networks,” said Nandi. “They can also induce strong disturbances in the geomagnetic field tripping electric power grids located in high latitude regions.”“Of course, they also create beautiful auroras (Northern Lights) so we can expect 2024 to be a good year for aurora hunters.”Computer scientist Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi’s 2021 study at the University of California examined how space weather events could impact internet infrastructure. Jyothi discovered while powerful solar storms cannot directly impact fibre optic cables, they do have the potential to cripple signal boosters along underwater cables that play a role in connectivity across large distances, the Daily Mail reported at the time. Jyothi and colleagues predicted based on their research at the time there was a 1.6% to 12% chance a solar storm could cause catastrophic communications disruption within the next 10 years. .In the summer of 1859, a massive solar storm caused worldwide communications disruptions, called the Carrington event. It lasted from August 28 through September 3 that year, and is the most significant storm of its kind ever documented in history. It showed “for the first time that the sun and aurora were connected and that auroras generated strong ionospheric currents,” according to the US National Institutes of Health. “A significant portion of the world’s 200,000 km of telegraph lines were adversely affected, many of which were unusable for eight hours or more.”NASA in 2020 called the Carrington flares “Coronal Mass Ejections,” and said it caused “widespread disruption to electrical and Telegraph services.”The Carrington event, observed by Richard Carrington and Richard Hodgson, “showcased for the first time the potentially disastrous relationship between the sun’s energetic temperament and the nascent technology of the 19th century,” said NASA. “On September 1, 1859, Carrington and Hodgson were observing the sun, investigating and mapping the locations, size and shapes of the sunspots when, just before noon local time in England, they each independently became the first people to witness and record a solar flare.“What neither could know at the moment is that a major Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) had just erupted from the surface of the sun and was headed straight for Earth.” It took a mere 17.6 hours for the CME to travel the 150 million km distance between the sun and Earth — usually it takes several days. In more recent history, storms have impacted various regions on Earth, including the 1921 solar storm that impacted New York and the 1989 solar storm that caused a nine-hour blackout in Quebec.
NASA confirmed this week the sun has hit a peak in its 11-year cycle, a stage where its northern and south poles flip, and the sun transitions from its calm condition to an “active and stormy state.”Given the powerful solar flares the sun emits during this phase, there is widespread speculation the peak period — which lasts about a year — could result in internet disruption across the globe. A 2021 study out of the University of California discovered severe solar flares could cripple the internet for weeks at a time. Solar flares are significant bursts of energy that bounce off the sun while it’s in its chaotic state, which is known as “solar maximum.” It is when the sun reaches this stage in its 11-year cycle that the Northern Lights can be seen from Earth most prominently. The flares, or “solar storms,” can also disturb internet and GPS satellites orbiting in the atmosphere and to power grids on Earth, which can lead to ongoing blackouts. . NASA, along with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel, during a teleconference on Tuesday confirmed the sun is now in its solar maximum period, with the peak still ahead. “During solar maximum, the number of sunspots, and therefore, the amount of solar activity, increases,' said Jamie Favors, director of NASA's space weather program. “This increase in activity provides an exciting opportunity to learn about our closest star, but also causes real effects (on) Earth and throughout our solar system.” “While the sun has reached the solar maximum period, the month that solar activity peaks on the sun will not be identified for months or years,” added Elsayed Talaat, director of space weather operations at NOAA. .Dr. Dibyendu Nandi, a physicist from the IISER Kolkata Center of Excellence in Space Sciences in India, told the Daily Mail these powerful solar storms can disrupt satellite communication services and geomagnetic power grids. “The most intense (solar) storms can sometimes result in catastrophic orbital decay of low Earth orbiting satellites and disrupt satellite based services such as communications and navigational networks,” said Nandi. “They can also induce strong disturbances in the geomagnetic field tripping electric power grids located in high latitude regions.”“Of course, they also create beautiful auroras (Northern Lights) so we can expect 2024 to be a good year for aurora hunters.”Computer scientist Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi’s 2021 study at the University of California examined how space weather events could impact internet infrastructure. Jyothi discovered while powerful solar storms cannot directly impact fibre optic cables, they do have the potential to cripple signal boosters along underwater cables that play a role in connectivity across large distances, the Daily Mail reported at the time. Jyothi and colleagues predicted based on their research at the time there was a 1.6% to 12% chance a solar storm could cause catastrophic communications disruption within the next 10 years. .In the summer of 1859, a massive solar storm caused worldwide communications disruptions, called the Carrington event. It lasted from August 28 through September 3 that year, and is the most significant storm of its kind ever documented in history. It showed “for the first time that the sun and aurora were connected and that auroras generated strong ionospheric currents,” according to the US National Institutes of Health. “A significant portion of the world’s 200,000 km of telegraph lines were adversely affected, many of which were unusable for eight hours or more.”NASA in 2020 called the Carrington flares “Coronal Mass Ejections,” and said it caused “widespread disruption to electrical and Telegraph services.”The Carrington event, observed by Richard Carrington and Richard Hodgson, “showcased for the first time the potentially disastrous relationship between the sun’s energetic temperament and the nascent technology of the 19th century,” said NASA. “On September 1, 1859, Carrington and Hodgson were observing the sun, investigating and mapping the locations, size and shapes of the sunspots when, just before noon local time in England, they each independently became the first people to witness and record a solar flare.“What neither could know at the moment is that a major Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) had just erupted from the surface of the sun and was headed straight for Earth.” It took a mere 17.6 hours for the CME to travel the 150 million km distance between the sun and Earth — usually it takes several days. In more recent history, storms have impacted various regions on Earth, including the 1921 solar storm that impacted New York and the 1989 solar storm that caused a nine-hour blackout in Quebec.
