BAS: New study reveals potential cost of solar storms

Find out the latest thinking about our universe.
Post Reply
User avatar
bystander
Apathetic Retiree
Posts: 21571
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:06 pm
Location: Oklahoma

BAS: New study reveals potential cost of solar storms

Post by bystander » Wed Jan 18, 2017 10:49 pm

New study reveals potential cost of solar storms
British Antartic Survey | University of Cambridge | American Geophysical Union | 2017 Jan 18

Extreme space weather-induced electricity blackouts could cost U.S. more than $40 billion daily

New study finds more than half the loss occurs outside the blackout zone

[img3="Artist illustration of events on the sun changing the conditions in Near-Earth space. A new study finds daily U.S. economic cost from solar storm-induced electricity blackouts could be in the tens of billions of dollars. Credit: NASA"]http://news.agu.org/files/2017/01/space ... 24x512.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]
The daily U.S. economic cost from solar storm-induced electricity blackouts could be in the tens of billions of dollars, with more than half the loss from indirect costs outside the blackout zone, according to a new study.

Previous studies have focused on direct economic costs within the blackout zone, failing to take account of indirect domestic and international supply chain loss from extreme space weather.

On average the direct economic cost incurred from disruption to electricity represents only 49% of the total potential macroeconomic costs reports the paper published in Space Weather, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. ...

Under the study’s most extreme blackout scenario, affecting 66 per cent of the U.S. population, the daily domestic economic loss could total $41.5 billion plus an additional $7 billion loss through the international supply chain.

Electrical engineering experts are divided on the possible severity of blackouts caused by “Coronal Mass Ejections,” or magnetic solar fields ejected during solar flares and other eruptions. Some believe that outages would last only hours or a few days because electrical collapse of the transmission system would protect electricity generating facilities, while others fear blackouts could last weeks or months because those transmission networks could in fact be knocked out and need replacement. ...

Quantifying the daily economic impact of extreme space weather
due to failure in electricity transmission infrastructure
- Edward J. Oughton et al
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
— Garrison Keillor

Post Reply