Unexpected solar storms pose unaddressed threat to technology

Solar storms can cause significant disruptions to the operation of satellites, electronic devices, and potentially lead to power outages. In the worst-case scenario, society could be plunged into darkness for years. Despite the frequency of these phenomena, public awareness remains inadequate.

So far, no storms strong enough to paralyze the world have been recorded, but in times before electrification, there were storms that could cause chaos today. Research published in "Nature Communications" in 2022 reveals that a powerful storm occurred about 9,200 years ago, which is alarming, especially since it happened during a period of minimum solar activity, which occurs cyclically every 11 years.

This discovery suggests that dangerous solar storms can occur unexpectedly, even when solar activity levels appear low. Unfortunately, there are still no preventive measures against such phenomena, and humanity has not developed 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, emphasized co-author of the study Raimund Muscheler from Lund University in Sweden in a statement.

In extreme cases, such storms can damage key components of the global energy network, such as large transformers, which take up to 15 years to build and cannot easily be replaced in the event 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 of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, which advises the US Congress on national security issues.

Currently, satellites can directly monitor solar flares, but uncovering storms from past times requires intensive research efforts. Researchers have focused on searching for cosmogenic radionuclides, 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 conducted by researchers showed 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 earlier extreme storms, hoping to discover a pattern of such events occurring.