Major Solar Storm May Catch People of Earth Unaware

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The people of Earth will have no more than 12 hours to prepare for the next major solar storm, which, according to forecasts, may disrupt transportation, knock out the electricity supply, distort satellite signals, telephone communication and cause many other unfortunate consequences.

The UK Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has published a new document that details the possible alarming effects of the next big solar storm to come and the means by which we can decrease the potential damage.

The bad news is, it is unclear when the next storm will take place and impossible to accurately predict the date, CNN reported. Therefore, every country should permanently be ready for the damages a ‘coronal mass ejection’ may bring.

The first high-energy X-ray picture taken by NuSTAR, showing the Sun's west limb, was released in December. - Sputnik International
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A ‘Coronal mass ejection’ is the most disturbing element of severe space weather – more precisely, it is a massive burst of gas and magnetic fields which blasts away large parts of the Sun’s corona, lasting for several hours. According to the document, the cannonball of ‘coronal mass ejection’ can reach Earth after 12 hours. The corona is the sun’s outer atmosphere made of plasma and rarefied gases that extends millions of kilometers into space and can only be seen during total eclipses in a way of pearly glow around the sun.

In the released document, the BIS stressed that certain measures should be taken to prepare the world for the worst case scenario which will most likely be similar to the infamous Carrington event of 1859, known as the biggest coronal mass ejection in 500 years. That year, our planet was struck by a powerful solar flare, X-rays and radiation storms, which made Telegraph systems all over the world fail.

This time, above all, we may temporarily lose the devices we hardly can survive without – our computers.

“Without computers the modern world would simply cease to function. Life as we know it would grind to a halt. It is therefore scary to know that these computers are remarkably susceptible to electronic interference which can bring about this situation.” said Professor Alan Woodward, Department of Computing, University of Surrey.

If the worst happens, there will be only 12 hours of notice before the mass ejection would touch Earth. BIS suggests that in order to prevent electricity block outs, shutting down of satellite operations and other predicted headaches, people should start thinking about how they’ll cope with the phenomenon and initiate preparations as soon as possible.

Those preparations include improving of alerts and warnings, updating power and communication infrastructure with failsafe backups and other measures.

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