The newest looming threat for doomsday forecasters doesn't involve plagues, death beams or killer asteroids, but rather the natural energy of the sun, which in one alarming scenario could take down modern power grids.The concern is that bursts of radiation from the sun's surface could cripple satellites in orbit and fry electronics on Earth, creating infrastructure damage that some have compared to Hurricane Katrina. And with a period of especially high solar activity, "solar maximum," just a few years away, this potential threat is grabbing attention.
The idea of solar storms pulling the plug on electronics worldwide makes for riveting headlines, but how great is the actual risk?
Scientists worry that bursts of radiation from the sun could knock out satellites in space and destroy electronics on Earth. Here, an illustration shows such a burst blasting off the sun's surface and moving toward the Earth.
"Will massive solar storm cause blackouts on Earth?" screamed a headline on the German news site Bild.com. It also claimed NASA had issued an alert, which turns out to be not quite accurate.
What NASA did do was hold a Space Weather Enterprise Forum on Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., where scientists discussed the very real danger of solar storms. "The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity," said Richard Fisher, head of NASA's Heliophysics Division.
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More info.
"What's Wrong With The Sun?" On New Scientist
Geomagnetic Storms - Wiki
