Protecting UK infrastructure from space weather
Summary
Geomagnetic storms are rapidly becoming one of the biggest potential threats to modern society. They can cause serious damage to power grids, communications satellites and other vital infrastructure. The potential ongoing costs from a single serious event have been estimated at up to £1·3 trillion a year.
NERC provides regular short and long-term forecasts of space weather and solar activity, to protect the infrastructure, scientific and commercial satellites our complex society relies on.
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Protection from space weather case study (511KB)
Partners
Satellite operators and insurers, National Grid, British Antarctic Survey (BAS), British Geological Survey (BGS)
The collaboration
Geomagnetic storms occur when clouds of charged particles are released by solar flares, and with solar activity predicted to increase, more severe space weather events are likely. If the largest magnetic storm ever recorded happened now, it could cause as much as £18bn-worth of immediate damage.
NERC research is rapidly improving our understanding of this threat.
Launched in March 2012, SPACECAST is an EU-funded collaboration, led by NERC's British Antarctic Survey, which provides frequent web-based space weather forecasts updated every hour. Armed with this knowledge, satellite operators can switch off non-essential systems, reroute signals or reschedule orbit manoeuvres, to protect their satellites in the event of a storm.
In its first month of operation, SPACECAST was used by SES Global, the world's largest satellite operator with over 50 satellites worth over £158m, to identify the threat to their assets during geomagnetic storms in March 2012. Through its TSUNAMI initiative, BAS has also been working with a number of specialist UK insurance companies to evaluate the risk posed to spacecraft during space weather events.
The British Geological Survey publishes a daily space weather forecast, predicting conditions up to three days ahead, and provides a space weather monitoring service for National Grid. The near real-time geomagnetic data BGS provide helps ensure the continued safe operation of the power grid.
Contact
For more information please contact knowledge@nerc.ac.uk.
