Last Tuesday, a solar flare-up was reported to have created a geomagnetic space storm, which was directed towards Earth. Experts claim that the storm was created by our “use of satellite systems for networking, and bringing computers and gadgets into line, airline course-plotting and of course telecommunications which may include cable internet phone and other items.” We got a taste of what the storm could be last week when a torrent of charged plasma charged towards Earth at 580 miles per second-the strongest eruption in 5 years.
According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, weather trouble such as the storm can fry satellites, cause power outages and if extreme enough, crash stock markets. In rebuttal to this claim, Stephen Lechner, director of the European Commission Joint Research Center states that our weakness lies within the GPS. Hence there’s no need to panic.
I’m sure we all would be affected if a major space storm were to occur. How would you recommend we as humans manage our dependency on technology?
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