Solar emissions such as coronal mass ejection and solar flares are known to be a natural threat to the electrical power of our planet. The intensity of its cosmic effects could possibly result in a series of widespread electrical blackouts in every country.
Solar storms might not harm humans physically, but they would indeed impact the electrical and electronic-based machinery, devices, and power supplies. The effects of a solar storm could be excessively felt in any industry, transportation, and even on internet access.
Solar Storm and Internet Apocalypse
Solar emissions have been a topic for many studies, but they do not gain much attention whenever communication impacts are at stake. In a new study, the effects of solar storms on internet infrastructure were analyzed.
One of the overlooked aspects of everyday essentials is internet access, but the world's top medium for communication was recently found to be at risk from the intense emissions from the sun called solar superstorms.
According to the study titled "Solar Superstorms: Planning for an Internet Apocalypse," the internet could be massively affected if ever a solar superstorm takes place.
If the catastrophic emissions from the sun hit, the undersea cable responsible for maintaining the internet access of the globe could incur severe damage.
University of California expert and author of the study Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi presented a paper involving the negative effects of the solar superstorms on the internet infrastructure in a recent conference called the SIGCOMM 2021.
Based on the study, solar superstorms can emit magnetized particles that can move quickly in clusters. MRT reported that these solar particles are suspected to be capable of severe infliction towards the global internet connection.
However, compared to the widescale internet infrastructure, Abdu Jyothi determined that some of the local and regional internets would be less affected or may not even be impacted at all in the event of a massive solar storm.
In addition, the advanced optical fibers that bring the fastest community and commercial internet connections have a composition that is not much affected by geomagnetic waves.
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Geomagnetic Storm's Impact on Submarine Communication Cable
Submarine communications cable, on the other hand, could be destroyed in an instant due to solar superstorms. The long undersea cables are buried under large bodies of water and are usually placed in between continents.
When these intercontinental cables incur geomagnetic effects, countries that rely on the submarine internet connection could experience a chaotic blackout while the local and small infrastructures remain intact.
The solar storm and internet access correlation are seemingly evaded by least of the scientific community due to the lack of data. Even the solar storm itself is not yet clear to most astronomical studies, as only three of the phenomena took place in the entire human history.
Initial observations during the 1859 Carrington Event showed that geomagnetic impacts could cripple wired electrical systems, including the telegraph infrastructures. During the Carrington Event, a coronal mass ejection or CME emitted a powerful geomagnetic wave that reached Earth's magnetosphere, causing the most chaotic geomagnetic storm ever.
Even the aurora borealis acted strange, making themselves visible over the Colombian peninsula. In a separate event, the Hydro-Québec blackout that took place in 1989 proved that even modern-age electric infrastructures could be damaged by just a moderately severe solar storm.
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