Publish Date: June 18, 2013
Article Source: Washington Times
Article Link: www.aer.com/news-events/in-the-news/2013/doing-something-about-space-weather
"Doing something about space weather: The time to prevent solar-flare damage is before it happens" highlights joint research by Lloyds and AER and initiatives by the federal and state governments and industry to make the electric transmission grid more resilient.
The latest study of our vulnerability to EMP [electromagnetic pulse] from space weather was conducted for Lloyds of London by Atmospheric and Environmental Research. It set out to assess what would happen if we were subjected to solar flaring comparable to that of an 1859 sun storm known as the Carrington Event - the sort of severe space weather that seems to occur roughly every 150 years. (That would put us approximately four years overdue for such an event.)
The Lloyds-AER team...estimate that such solar flaring would deny power to roughly 20 to 40 million Americans along the Eastern seaboard between Washington and New York City. According to this analysis, power would be off for between 16 days and two years and the costs of remediation would run between $600 billion and $2 trillion.
Read the full Washington Times article Doing something about space weather: The time to prevent solar-flare damage is before it happens.