A recent study, spurred by a significant solar storm in May 2024, details potential widespread power outages across the US should a storm comparable to the 1859 Carrington Event occur. The research, published in AGU Advances, identifies the East Coast as particularly vulnerable.
In May 2024, the Space Weather Prediction Center observed a dark knot of tangled magnetic field lines – spanning 124,000 miles – heading toward Earth. Shawn Dahl, service coordinator at the Center, explained the phenomenon, stating, “That's magnets twisting and turning and popping through each other…Think about a rubber band, twisting it and bending it and stretching it. It's going to break.” This event, known as the Gannon storm, disrupted radio signals, rerouted airplanes, and interrupted service from mapping and communications satellites.
While the Gannon storm was three times less intense than the Carrington Event, it still caused $500 million to $1 billion in economic losses when farmers in at least 12 states had to halt planting due to damage to precision GPS sensors. Researchers modeled the potential impact of a 250-year solar storm – a geomagnetic storm occurring once every 150 years or more rarely – and found the East Coast would face widespread potential for grid failure.
The study estimates the US economy would lose approximately $1.5 billion to $2 billion per day due to direct and indirect costs, with millions experiencing power outages. The research, led by EJ Oughton and DK Bor, utilized NASA’s Black Marble nighttime lights product and data analysis from Dennies Bor and George Mason University to map potential vulnerabilities.
Read the original coverage
💬 Comments
📜 Comment Policy