William Atkins
Monday, 12 January 2009 19:36
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 3
A first-ever economic-based report has stated that the Sun’s solar wind could produce catastrophic global problems on Earth. It is just a warning but one that should be heeded so we continue to learn and adapt more to "Earth's life blood," the Sun.
NASA funded this space-weather study by the
National Academy of Sciences (NAS, Washington, D.C.). Its results provide economic data on how space weather (specifically,
“magnetic activity on the sun and disturbances in the near-Earth environment”) could adversely affect the Earth.
The SpaceDaily.com article “
Hazards Of Severe Space Weather Revealed” stated that the
“NASA-funded study describes how extreme solar eruptions could have severe consequences for communications, power grids and other technology on Earth.“
Richard Fisher, the director of NASA’s Heliophysics division, was quoted to have said,
"Obviously, the sun is Earth's life blood. To mitigate possible public safety issues, it is vital that we better understand extreme space weather events caused by the sun's activity." [SpaceDaily.com]
Additional information on solar storms, what is called heliophysics, is found on the
NASA Heliophysics division.
The National Academy of Sciences report is found on the website “
Severe Space Weather Events.”
The NAS report states,
“The adverse effects of extreme space weather on modern technology--power grid outages, high-frequency communication blackouts, spacecraft anomalies--are well known and well documented, and the physical processes underlying space weather are also generally well understood.”
“Less well documented and understood, however, are the potential economic and societal impacts of the disruption of critical technological systems by severe space weather.”
Information from the NAS report continues from page two.
