Solar Storms

OVERVIEW

A solar flare is a sudden burst of radiation caused by changes in the magnetic fields of the sun’s corona. Large solar flares have occured in the pre-industrial era, and if a similar solar flare occurred today, there could be power outages lasting months or even years in some areas. It could take a long time to repair the grid because a solar storm could blow out large transformers, and these can take up to two years to rebuild.

DANGERS

  • A large enough solar storm could cause trillions of USD in damages​

CURRENT STATUS

  • Physicist Pete Riley predicts there’s a 12% chance that an extreme solar storm could hit Earth before 2022
  • We could get just 12 hours notice of an incoming solar storm
  • In 2012, a solar flare large enough to cause $2 trillion in damages almost hit the Earth
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