You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Science & Technology
Rare Solar Superstorm Could Prompt ‘Internet Apocalypse' Lasting Several Months
2021-09-26
[ET] The "black swan" event of a solar superstorm directed at earth could prompt an "internet apocalypse" across the entire globe that could last for several months, new research (pdf) has warned.

University of California Irvine assistant professor Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi presented the new research, titled "Solar Superstorms: Planning for an Internet Apocalypse," last month during the Association for Computing Machinery’s annual conference for their Special Interest Group on Data Communication (SIGCOMM).

"One of the greatest dangers facing the internet with the potential for global impact is a powerful solar superstorm," Jyothi wrote in the new research paper.

"Although humans are protected from these storms by the earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere, they can cause significant damage to man-made infrastructure. The scientific community is generally aware of this threat with modeling efforts and precautionary measures being taken, particularly in the context of power grids. However, the networking community has largely overlooked this risk during the design of the network topology and geo-distributed systems such as DNS and data centers," he continued.
Posted by:Besoeker

#14  Nice graphs, tw! It is interesting how the story changes with the time scale. Looking at the big picture, you don't need to be able to spell FFT to notice a certain cyclic regularity.
Posted by: SteveS   2021-09-26 23:10  

#13  My favourite historical climate graphs can be seen here — going back to -400,000 before present. Must scroll down.
Posted by: trailing wife   2021-09-26 22:02  

#12  the Little ice age which lasted from about 1300 to 1850.

This is why all those Global Climate Scaring graphs you see start around 1860 - we were coming out of a baby ice age. Even stats guy Nate Silver, in his otherwise excellent "The Signal and the Noise", falls into this trap.

You don't see the wild zigzag swings between Ice Age and Warm Period over the last few million years, just that steady rise since the Industrial Revolution. Damn those humans and their oxidized carbon!
Posted by: SteveS   2021-09-26 20:44  

#11  Maunder Minimum was a low sunspot era that lasted from about 1650 to 1710 or so.

It was during the Little ice age which lasted from about 1300 to 1850.

The best Maunder Minimum correlation though is ironically with the 1643 to 1715 reign of Louis XIV who was known as the le Roi Soleil ( Sun King)
Posted by: Lord Garth   2021-09-26 20:08  

#10  Maunder's was a grand solar minimum, which is what some think we may be heading into.
Posted by: Silentbrick   2021-09-26 17:39  

#9  Wasn't that known as the Maunder minimum - that led to or at least was associated with the mini-ice age?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia   2021-09-26 15:01  

#8  fwiw, the Sun has been pretty quiet the past year or two

we are at a very low sunspot count and will likely remain so for several more years
Posted by: Lord Garth   2021-09-26 14:59  

#7  #5 - I'm putting together a grant application to spin the Earth 90 degrees on axis. Solves the Antarctic ozone hole stat!
Posted by: Frank G   2021-09-26 14:55  

#6  Quick! We have to send this assistant professor lots and lots of money so he can save us all!
Posted by: CrazyFool   2021-09-26 14:30  

#5  Yes well, the problem they had is that when the ozone hole was found, the true cause of it was worked out in just a couple years....ie, Ozone is formed by the interaction of sunlight in the upper atmosphere. What do you not get much of at the poles......SUNLIGHT!. And since it was discovered in 1954 I think and by the 60's we knew the cause BEFORE the widespread used of CFC's, we knew that it was BS.
Posted by: Silentbrick   2021-09-26 14:28  

#4  Haven't heard about the "hole in the ozone layer" since the 1990s. Does this mean that climate change is losing its cachet and we need to shift to another focus for panic--even a retread from 30 years ago?
Posted by: Tom   2021-09-26 09:56  

#3  Hole in the ozone layer that develops annually is 'rather larger than usual' this year - and is currently bigger than Antarctica, scientists say
Posted by: Skidmark   2021-09-26 08:31  

#2  An internet collapse? Are there downsides as well ?

University of California Irvine research, it MUST be believed !
Posted by: Besoeker   2021-09-26 07:46  

#1  Our magnetic field is extremely weak at this time. Gaps the size of California could occur and has in the past. The overpowering solar bombardment 1859 Carrington event repeat perhaps. I wonder at what point our bio electric system could be neutralized by emp so to speak. Humanity survived that event. It was said batteries were not required as things would work without. I wonder, transformers would blow perhaps.
Posted by: Dale   2021-09-26 07:42  

00:00