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Stormy (space) weather

According to the BBC: "Our planet is being bombarded by high-energy particles unleashed by the strongest solar storm since 2005".

Yes, it seems that a solar cyclone is hurling a cloud of charged particles at our little blue/green globe with fierce intensity and (again to quote the BBC) "this can interfere with technology on Earth, such as electrical power grids, communications systems and satellites - including satellite navigation (or sat-nav) signals."

The storm-front actually arrived at 1400GMT on Tuesday (or about 3am this morning NZDT) and the fact that everything around here still seems to work just fine would indicate that perhaps it's not going to be the technology-smashing event the media might suggest.

In fact, I can't recall NZ ever having encountered much more than poor long-distance radio communications as a result of such storms -- although they have had a greater impact elsewhere on the planet.

I'm also surprised that, given the way it's predicted in the media, we've not seen any major satellites knocked out by these gusty solar storms.

Indeed, the most likely effect of today's storm is likely to be the chance for Southern residents to catch a glimpse of the Aurora Australis (Southern Lights), as I expect they would be greatly intensified and therefore visible from more northern latitudes than usual.

Even that is probably unlikely given that, after raising the spectre of global doom and technological disaster -- the final sentence of the BBC story reads: "But a spokesman for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (Noaa) Space Weather Prediction Center said the effects of this solar eruption seem likely to be moderate"

Ha... even the BBC seems to be trending towards sensationalism in its "news" coverage.

To paraphrase this story: "The sky could be falling -- but it's probably not"

However, as I've mooted before in this column -- are we doing enough to prepare for a major solar storm?

How would our seemingly frail electricity grid hold up if we got hit by "a big one"?

What about the internet itself?

Fortunately, most of NZ's international connectivity is by way of undersea cable so that's pretty safe. A massive wall of water is probably a fairly good screen against the effects of the solar wind and even the strongest varying magnetic flux won't induce any current in a fibre-optic cable.

Perhaps the biggest upset here in NZ would be the loss of services such as SkyTV and other satellite-based material -- should one of the birds involved actually sustain irreparable damage. That's not really a loss -- in fact it might improve the nation's productivity and sense of community.

"It's an ill (solar) wind that blows no good", as they say.

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