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Major solar storms could cause a global ‘internet apocalypse’

Every 100 years or so, normally harmless electromagnetic particles from the sun conjure a major solar storm. With the potential to damage electrical grids and undersea cables, scientists are concerned the next may cause a global ‘internet apocalypse’.

In 2021, seeing Wi-Fi signal drop off in the lower corner of a desktop is enough to send anyone spiralling into despair.

Now, if it isn’t too painful, imagine that scenario unfolding on a global scale, afflicting entire countries with internet blackouts for months on end.

Unfortunately, we’re not describing the plot of the next low-budget Netflix horror. In reality, that hellish prospect isn’t beyond the realms of possibility according to research presented at SIGCOMM 2021, a leading communication tech conference in New York.

Science has long known that the Earth is constantly being bombarded by electromagnetic particles from the sun. Thanks to our magnetic field, this usually amounts to such particles flowing off harmlessly to the planet’s poles leaving behind nothing but colourful shimmering auras.

However, every 80 to 100 years or so into the sun’s natural life cycle, solar winds escalate and transform into a full blown solar storm.

With only a handful of previous instances recorded in human history, there’s reportedly between a 1.6% and 12% chance of such an extreme space weather event occurring during each decade.

It just so happens most modern technological advances have coincided with periods of weak solar activity. Many are now asking, what happens if our luck runs out?

We’re already in the grips a climate crisis entirely of our own making here on Earth, I’d say we’ve probably got enough on our plate right now.

Surprisingly, a raging sun storm isn’t much of a direct threat to our physical health, per say, but more so has the potential to have devastating impacts on our technology infrastructures – specifically, the internet fibre lines and submarine cables that keep most of the world connected.

The author of the SIGCOMM research paper, Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi, revealed that when the solar storms meet our magnetic field it produces Geomagnetically Induced Currents in the Earth’s crust.

It’s this phenomenon that has scientists concerned about the integrity of current internet conductor lines spanning between entire continents underwater. Yet to be tested by any significant solar event, it has to be said that we’re running a serious risk.

Clambering to build some sort of future plan, sparse data around solar events in 1959 and 1921 is being studied. In both cases, GICs caused significant disturbances to electronics and severely damaged telegraph wires.

Later in 1989, the most aggressive solar storm in recent memory knocked out Hydro-Quebec’s grid and caused a nine-hour blackout in northeast Canada.

As those in the know have suggested, wide-scale destruction to our systems today could feasibly bring entire countries offline for months at a time, severely impacting almost every industry and person on Earth.

In a worst-case scenario, you certainly wouldn’t be getting new stories or videos from Thred. I know, it doesn’t bare thinking about.

You’ll be pleased to hear the internet is built for resilience, in that online traffic will reroute around faulty paths keeping connectivity up at reduced speeds, but enough damage to vital arteries would destabilise entire networks.

On top of all this, a major solar storm could knock out hardware orbiting the Earth too. In our efforts to save delicate ecosystems from the brink of oblivion, it goes without saying that losing our eye in the sky would be a monumental blow.

‘Our infrastructure is not prepared for a large-scale solar event,’ says Jyothi. ‘We have very limited understanding of what the extent of the damage would be.’

‘The paper is just scratching the surface of an important problem. A lot needs to be done to understand the risk and robustify our infrastructure.’

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