Space weather threat: Fears solar flares will shut down Britain and cripple satellites


A five-year “road map” will set out how the UK will get protection in place to reduce the threat from extreme space weather. Solar flares, which Nasa describes as the “most powerful explosions in our solar system” release surges of radiation into space and can bombard the earth’s upper atmosphere with electrically charged particles. Paul Maynard, a former transport, justice and Treasury minister, is at the forefront of efforts to persuade the Government to prepare for the damage that a major solar flare could cause.

He argues this is “unavoidable” and expects it is “going to happen at some point”.

The Blackpool North and Cleveleys MP fears that if there is a repeat of the 1859 solar storm that produced the “Carrington Event” – which reportedly shut down telegraph networks in North America, Europe and parts of Asia and Australia – the consequences could be much more serious this time around.

He said: “I was concerned that in the light of the pandemic, where we had prepared for the wrong type of flu as it were, that it was worth investigating whether we were preparing for the right sort of solar flare…

“My concern would be that if we don’t make all the right preparations we may find that our satellite systems are knocked out and we basically become isolated from the outside world if planes avoid us… It’s about our resilience in the face of the unexpected.”

Mr Maynard is seeking assurances that the UK’s network of electricity transformers can survive a major solar flare and wants to know how quickly power could be restored.

A 2013 report by Lloyd’s and Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER) warned that up to 40million Americans were at risk of “extended power outage” and warned extreme geomagnetic storms are likely to occur every 100-250 years.

It said space weather on the scale of the Carrington Event could cause “major disruption to transport, food supplies, emergency and hospital services”. A further concern was that “if pumping operations needed to be suspended that would quickly affect water and fuel supplies, sewage systems and flood defences”.

Amanda Solloway, minister for science, research and innovation, said: “The department will publish a new space weather strategy later this year, which will set out a five-year road map for how we intend to boost resilience and build on existing UK strengths and capacity in preparing for and mitigating space weather impacts…

“In November 2019, the UK Government committed £80million to the European Space Agency Space Safety programme, of which £10m was targeted towards space weather and debris mitigation development activities… The UK is a world leader in space weather forecasting and the Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre provides forecasts and warnings of space weather on a 24/7 basis.”



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