Fierce Solar storms can strike anytime! Can Earth handle it? The answer will worry you
Solar storms have been striking the Earth with increasing rapidity over the last few weeks as the Sun marches towards the solar maximum in its 11-year cycle. They have caused fascinating auroras on the poles apart from interfering with GPS and causing radio blackouts. The Earth has been lucky so far as these solar storms have not been powerful enough to cause more damage. However, they have also raised one important question- what if an extreme solar storm hits Earth? Are we prepared for it? Undoubtedly, the effect of a fierce solar storm can be destructive to our every day lives. For instance, back in 2003, a surprise solar storm disrupted hundreds of flights all over the world, caused the loss of control of many low Earth orbiting satellites and people in Sweden were left without electricity as the power grid went down.
But that was not the most dreadful instance of a solar storm on Earth. The Carrington Event in 1859 and the 1921 New York Railroad Storm, were two most powerful solar storms in recorded history which caused widespread terror on Earth. Both of these solar storms at that time disrupted telegraph services all over the world. But things have changed now. Telegraph is a story of the past now, in the today's world, many other technologies, including the internet and satellites are equally vulnerable to space weather outbursts.
The problem is that space weather forecasters are only marginally better at predicting those storms than they were in 2003, Bill Murtagh, NOAA's SWPC program coordinator told Space.com. Space weather forecasters still have very little information about what's happening on the side facing away from Earth, the report suggested. The fact is, our life-giving star is still spinning on its axis
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