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Severe Space Weather Events Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts: A Workshop Report (2008) / Chapter Skim
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Summary
Pages 1-5

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
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From page 1...
... Exposure of spacecraft to energetic particles during solar energetic particle events and radiation belt enhancements can cause temporary operational anomalies, damage critical electronics, degrade solar arrays, and blind optical systems such as imagers and star trackers. The effects of space weather on modern technological systems are well documented in both the technical literature and popular accounts.
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From page 2...
... Industry-specific Space Weather Impacts The main industries whose operations can be adversely affected by extreme space weather are the electric power, spacecraft, aviation, and GPS-based positioning industries. The March 1989 blackout in Quebec and the forced outages of electric power equipment in the northeastern United States remain the classic example of the impact of a severe space weather event on the electric power industry.
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From page 3...
... Despite the lessons learned since 1989 and their successful application during the OctoberNovember 2003 storms, the nation's electric power grids remain vulnerable to disruption and damage by severe space weather and have become even more so, in terms of both widespread blackouts and permanent equipment damage requiring long restoration times. According to a study by the Metatech Corporation, the occurrence today of an event like the 1921 storm would result in large-scale blackouts affecting more than 130 million people and would expose more than 350 transformers to the risk of permanent damage.
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From page 4...
... The SWPC has identified a number of critical steps needed to improve its forecasting capability, enabling it, for example, to provide high-confidence long- and short-term forecasts of geomagnetic storms and ionospheric disturbances. These steps include securing an operational solar wind monitor at L1; transitioning research models (e.g., of coronal mass ejection propagation, the geospace radiation environment, and the coupled magnetosphere/ionosphere/atmosphere system)
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From page 5...
... Accurate forecasts of a severe magnetic storm would allow power companies to mitigate risk by canceling planned maintenance work, providing additional personnel to deal with adverse effects, and reducing the amount of power transfers between adjacent systems in the grid. However, as was pointed out during the workshop, if the warning proved to be a false alarm and planned maintenance was canceled, the cost of large cranes, huge equipment, and a great deal of material and manpower sitting idle would be very high.
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Key Terms

  • severe space
  • extreme space
  • economic impacts
  • weather infrastructure
  • weather events

  • weather event
  • modern technological
  • modern society
  • space environment
  • weather effects

  • improved operational
  • operational procedures
  • spacecraft industry
  • collateral effects
  • historical record

  • critical infrastructures
  • operational space
  • national space
  • infrastructure space
  • disturbed space

  • critical space
  • commercial space
  • mitigate space
  • adverse space
  • space physics

  • weather effort
  • weather models
  • weather products
  • weather services
  • weather businesses


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