Fear of a terrible solar storm could damage the Internet on Earth

Half the country was in darkness for nine hours when a grid failed during Canada's 1989 hurricane.

New York: A solar storm is a coronal mass emanating from the sun. It is quite dangerous and harmful. Scientists have recently warned that such a terrible storm will come in the future. This can have a profound effect on the Internet. This means that the entire world's Internet may be shut down or blocked for several days. The study was conducted on the Internet by Sangeeta Abdu Jyoti, a researcher at the University of California. He presented his study to scientists at the Sigcom 2021 Data Communication Congress last week.

According to the study of music, there will be less impact on the internet system at the local level. The reason is that it runs primarily on fiber optics. Fiber optics are not directly affected by geomagnetic currents. But it could also have an impact on Internet cable spread around the world. This cable connects different countries of the world. Many countries connect this cable to their own fiber optics cable. Fiber optics via marine internet cable will also be affected if a solar storm occurs in these circumstances.

Sangeeta says that the main reason behind this is that we lack information about solar storms and we do not have enough details about it. Solar storms also damage the electric grid and cause blackouts in large areas. It also affects the Internet system.

Sangeeta said the internet cable under the sea has repeaters to maintain the flow of current, which is extremely sensitive to solar storms. The condition of these repeaters can worsen in the event of a solar storm. It can also fail. With the end of its flow in cable, the supply of internet will be cut off across the country. The internet network will go offline.

Thus, if the internet is shut down, the entire country's economy, communication system, defense sector can all be stopped. "We are serious about this because the situation here is similar to that of Corona," Sangeeta said. Were not ready for Corona and the whole world deteriorated. Likewise not ready for a solar storm and its aftermath. There is also no knowledge of its impact with it. Thus, if there is a solar storm at a catastrophic level, due to which the internet of the whole world or some countries will be shut down, then the whole world will be affected. We can't stand that zest. The economies of many countries will go straight down. It is difficult to estimate the damage. The worst solar storms ever occurred in 1859, 1921 and 1989. This led to power outages in several countries. The grid failed and the states remained in darkness for several hours.

There was no electricity at the time of the solar storm of 1859, so no worries. Even so, the compass needle kept spinning. This affected maritime traffic. This led to the failure of the Quebec-based hydro power grid in Canada in 1989. Half the country was dark for nine hours.