NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and...
NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies are addressing the threat of space weather events on several fronts, said Kathryn Sullivan, acting NOAA administrator. Satellites and sensors aboard the 2015 Discovery mission and new solar instruments aboard…
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next-generation geostationary satellite GOES-R, also set to launch in 2015, will help in research efforts and the development of space weather products, she said Tuesday at the NOAA Space Weather Enterprise Forum in Maryland. The missions and research “will play critical roles in ensuring the continuity and vital observation streams that we need for NOAA to continue issuing alerts and warnings,” she said. “Our modern dependence on sophisticated electronics technology for almost everything we do today has gradually introduced a new vulnerability into our society.” Critical infrastructures are interconnected in ways “that can lead to significant vulnerabilities in multiple vital services during space weather storms,” she said. There is a need for more resilience from the impact of the storms, she said. A 10 percent loss of an insured satellite fleet to a solar superstorm would result in $2.4 billion of insured losses, she said. “A better understanding of the space weather threat could allow insurers to develop more sophisticated risk management approaches for both the insurance sector and utility companies.” Resilience to space weather events isn’t merely a federal undertaking, she said: Strong coordination is needed across the federal agencies as well as strong public-private partnerships “to distribute and disseminate the critical environmental intelligence that ultimately will enable our communities and our companies to protect themselves from the impact of space weather events.” The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center’s product subscription service has more than 33,000 customers, she said. Customers, including satellite companies, electric power companies and major airlines, receive products for radio blackouts, solar radiation storms and geomagnetic disturbances, she added: “The fastest growing segment of the subscription service is GPS users.”