A state of controversy accompanied by fear and panic has prevailed on social media sites during the past few days due to the spread of talk about the US space agency “NASA” expectations of strong solar storms that may hit the Earth, which may cause a long-term internet outage that may extend for weeks.
According to NASA’s warning, severe solar storms could cause the internet to be cut off from the entire world for weeks, explaining that every 11 years our sun turns into a chaotic ball that releases a series of huge bursts of energy towards the Earth – a period known as “solar maximum.”
While the chances of seeing the aurora borealis will increase, the chances of a global internet outage will increase, scientists say.
Scientists explained that this could cause disruption to the Internet and GPS satellites orbiting the Earth – with an outage that could last for weeks, according to a report published by the British newspaper, Daily Mail.
During this “solar maximum,” the most intense space weather events, commonly known as solar storms, are expected to occur. Although solar storms are not dangerous to humans, they can affect satellites in orbit as well as electrical grids on Earth.
Here the question comes to everyone’s mind: How can humans live on Earth for weeks, days, or even a few hours without the Internet?
The answer is that a solar storm generates massive amounts of thermal and radiation energy that can actually cause disruptions to internet services.
Reports say that solar storms disrupt communication satellites, such as GPS, and also cause power outages in some areas.
According to scientists, severe solar storms can sometimes lead to catastrophic orbital deterioration of satellites orbiting the Earth in low orbit and disrupt satellite-based services such as communications and navigation networks. They can also cause severe disruptions to electrical power grids that are disrupted in high-latitude regions due to the Earth’s magnetic field.
A 2021 study published by a scientist at the University of California, Irvine, found that the internet could be down for weeks in the wake of a severe solar storm, due to vulnerabilities in the world’s vast network of undersea communications cables.
Electromagnetic fluctuations caused by severe solar storms cannot directly damage the fiber optic cables that form the backbone of the Internet, but they do have the potential to knock out signal boosters deployed along undersea cables that are essential to maintaining communications over great distances.
shafaq.com
