Is NASA ready for the ‘internet apocalypse’?

A June report by The Weather Channel said a NASA probe could be the key to averting a possible solar superstorm that could cause an “internet apocalypse.” Furthermore, the federal agency also recently announced a new system that trains artificial intelligence to help predict such extreme events.

Sangeeta Abdu Jyoti, a computer science expert at the University of California, Irvine, said in a 2021 study that the likelihood of such “catastrophic” Internet outages in the next decade is between 1.6 percent and 12 percent. Jyothi’s paper estimates that such a large-scale blackout could cost the US economy $7 billion a day. But NASA experts said Parker Solar Probe has uncovered significant new clues that help them understand the origin of solar winds, which can wreak havoc on Earth’s satellites, radio communications, Internet and power grids at high speeds. and prepare for them.

According to NASA, Parker, launched in 2018, became the first spacecraft to “touch the sun” and enter its upper atmosphere, the corona. The goal was to help scientists study how solar winds reach supersonic speeds and affect the larger space weather system. “Understanding the mechanics of the solar wind is important for practical reasons on Earth,” University of Maryland physics professor James Drake told Forbes’ Jamie Carter in 2021. “It will affect our ability to understand how the sun is formed. energy and causes geomagnetic storms that threaten our communication networks.

Since Parker’s deployment, scientists have learned that solar winds, made up of streams of charged particles, are fueled by jets of energy, also known as jetlets, emanating from the corona. “This changes the paradigm of how we think about certain aspects of the solar wind,” physicist Craig DeForest said in a NASA report. This research, along with more data collected by Parker, could lead to future scientific breakthroughs. “We haven’t finished the puzzle yet, but this is a big step forward in understanding a central mystery of solar physics,” De Forest added.

In addition to typical flares, scientists must also take into account the 11-year solar cycle. At the cycle’s “maximum,” expected in 2025, electromagnetic activity on the Sun peaks, bringing with it a greater risk of disrupting life on Earth. To assess the risk, NASA recently created a new computer model that uses artificial intelligence to predict extreme conditions. Experts say new technology can predict where a solar storm will hit Earth with 30 minutes’ warning. If adopted by power grid operators and telecommunications companies around the world, officials could use it to protect their systems by taking them offline or temporarily shutting them down. “This may provide sufficient time to prepare for these storms and prevent major impacts to power grids and other critical infrastructure,” NASA said on its website.