A new article by an assistant professor at the University of California, Irvine, details the potential effects that a solar storm could have on our heavily internet-dependent world.
The conclusion? A particularly strong solar storm could have devastating effects on submarine internet cables, a crucial component of global internet infrastructure. Without stronger mitigation efforts against these effects, the study claims we could be heading for an “Internet apocalypse”.
Solar storms and electricity
Solar storms, also known as geomagnetic storms, cause massive solar flares that lead to coronary mass expulsion (CME), large expulsions of magnetic and plasma fields. Massive solar tsunamis on the surface of the Sun can send particularly strong CMEs by launching into Earth at speeds of up to several million miles per hour. While the Earth’s atmosphere protects us from the radioactive effects of these storms, they can wreak havoc on our electronics.
These solar storms have the potential to cause long blackouts, as solar winds hit the Earth’s magnetosphere causing millions or even billions of dollars in damage to electrical equipment, including satellites. And it’s not just a hypothetical scenario. In 1989, a solar storm was responsible for cutting off the electricity supply to more than 6 million people for nine hours in and around Quebec. He even stopped the Toronto Stock Exchange for three hours interrupting what was supposed to be a “fault-tolerant” computer.
What would an “Internet apocalypse” look like?
Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi, of the University of California, Irvine presents, in her article, entitled “Solar Superstorms: Planning for an Internet Apocalypse,” a hypothetical scenario in which Internet disruptions could persist for long periods after strong solar storms. , even last extended periods after the power returns to the grid.
Abdu Jyothi claims that the regional infrastructure of the Internet is really surprisingly robust against solar storms. This is because the optical fiber is not affected by the geomagnetically induced currents that are typical of solar storms. However, electronic repeaters used to amplify the optical signals of long submarine cables are very vulnerable to these currents, and a strong solar storm has the potential to cut off global connectivity by disrupting these cables.
In an interview with ONLINE, Abdu Jyothi noted that he began to think about the effects of solar storms on our Internet infrastructure when he saw how the world was unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic. “Our infrastructure is not prepared for a large-scale solar event. We have a very limited understanding of what the extent of the damage would be,” Abdu Jyothi explained.
Lack of data
Because geomagnetic storms are relatively rare, we only have data on three major events in relatively recent times: the aforementioned Quebec disruption in 1989 and events in 1921 and 1859. All of these occurred before the onset of the Modern Internet.
Not only are submarine cables vulnerable, but services such as SpaceX’s StarX satellite Internet service would also be particularly vulnerable to a solar storm, as they orbit 550 kilometers above the earth’s surface. Abdu Jyothi points out that there are currently no models of exactly how a strong solar storm would develop in the current Internet-based environment. He hopes his study will lead to a renewed focus of global industries on the potentially destructive effects of solar storms on our world’s connectivity.
Crucially, Abdu Jyothi says that since the last strong solar storm occurred more than three decades ago, we could be close to the next incident that could lead to massive cuts, which could lead to trillions of dollars in damage to the world. electronics and the loss of revenue due to Internet blackouts. Forbes, Internet outages could cost $ 7.2 billion a day for the U.S. economy. This is a figure that will only increase, especially as the world has increasingly become remote jobs in the midst of the ongoing pandemic.