Serious warnings How can a "solar storm" end the Internet in the world?

Several new reports have recently been published warning of the danger of violent solar storms that may strike the Earth and cause complete destruction of the Internet and communication networks around the world. What are solar storms? How does it occur? Will it be the reason for the collapse of the Internet?

During the past three decades, while the sun was going through a period of low activity, technology has developed amazingly, making the Internet one of the most important pillars in human life, in light of a severe lack of information about the ability of digital infrastructures to cope with powerful solar storms that may strike the Earth. At what time.

Just as the sun provides us with warmth, light and energy daily, it rains magnetic particles on the earth known as the "solar wind" that are repelled by the earth's magnetic field, sending it towards the poles, leaving behind what is known as the aurora borealis. However, these winds may sometimes intensify, causing what are known as solar storms, which occur approximately once every century.

In conjunction with the forecasts that warn of severe solar storms that may damage electrical networks and cause power outages for long periods, there have been many questions about what these storms may cause damage to the Internet infrastructure that may lead to its complete collapse.

What is a solar storm?

A solar storm, or coronal mass ejection, as astronomers call it, is the ejection of highly magnetic particles from the sun caused by a massive explosion of energy through the sun's outer layer. These particles can travel several million kilometers per hour and can take anywhere from 13 hours to a maximum of five days to reach Earth.

The first recorded solar storm occurred in 1859, which reached Earth after traveling in space for approximately 17 hours, and then affected the telegraph network and subjected several operators to electric shocks. While a solar storm in 1921 affected the telegraph and rail systems in New York, another small-scale storm caused the collapse of the power grid in Quebec, Canada, in 1989.

A 2013 report indicated that if a solar storm similar to that of 1859 hit the United States today, 20-40 million people could lose access to electricity for nearly two years, with total economic damage between $0.6 and 2.6 trillion.

How do solar storms occur?

The types of solar storms vary according to their occurrence and energy of release, but the most common of them is what is called a solar flare, which is the sudden expulsion of energy resulting from the interaction of the sun's magnetic field near sunspots.

These solar flares are often followed by a coronal mass ejection, which is a massive explosion of highly ionized particles racing out from the surface of the sun, covering everything in its path.

These coronal ejections are of fundamental importance to us because ionized particles can severely damage Earth-orbiting satellites, as well as their ability to disrupt our communications, electricity and internet systems, which need not be remembered as the backbone of our existence today.

However, solar storms that can cause a lot of damage are rare, the most recent of which was the storm that struck Canada in 1989, with a new storm expected at the end of 2021.

Will it be the end of the internet?

At the SIGCOMM 2021 Data Communications Conference, Sangeetha Jyoti of the University of California presented a paper titled “Solar Superstorms: Planning for the End of the World’s Internet,” examining the damage solar storms can cause to the architecture of the Internet and global communications systems.

Researchers have pointed out that the marine internet wire systems that connect countries and continents to each other within the internet that made our planet a small village, could become useless in the event of a violent solar storm.

According to the research, the occurrence of a severe solar storm could enter the world into an “internet collapse era” for months and perhaps years, which would have severe economic losses that could reach trillions of dollars, as well as damage to humanity due to the disruption of most of the technologies that run our daily lives.

For her part, Sangeetha highlighted that it is not possible to completely avoid these solar events, and indicated that the effects of these storms will vary in severity from one region to another, as she expected that the United States of America will be the most vulnerable, while the regions of Asia will be least vulnerable to damage.