Massive solar storm may hit Earth soon, likely to cause global internet blackout

Solar storms are probably one of the most amazing phenomenons that one can witness. However, now new research has said that the solar storm which hits Earth next could potentially destroy the infrastructure and cause an 'internet apocalypse'. The internet blackout will last for months.

The research was conducted by Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi of the University of California, Irvine, and VMware Research. She presented her paper at the SIGCOMM 2021 data communication conference.

In the new research titled "Solar Superstorms: Planning for an Internet Apocalypse", it is stated that there is a 1.6 to 12% chance of a solar storm to exist which can cause an internet blackout and will transform our digital world completely. Jyothi also said that the massive storm could actually be a solar superstorm, and compared it to a black swan event.

It is important to note that for the undersea cables that connect continents, things are dangerous even if most of them are connected via fibre optic cables because the repeaters that amplify the current at regular intervals are highly susceptible to failure, and hence pose a risk during a solar storm.

Has the Earth ever faced a solar storm before?

Notably, before this, severe solar storms have been recorded and had occurred back in 1859, 1921, and the most recent one in 1989. The solar storm that occurred in 1989 took down a Hydro-Quebec power grid causing a nine-hour power blackout in northeast Canada.

In her research paper, Abdu Jyothi also warned that we are not well prepared to face any consequences if another solar storm strikes the Earth.