Government adviser in fight to 'save Earth' against devastating solar storms expected to knock out National Grid in 2013
August 24, 2012 A space professor from Oxfordshire is battling ‘to save Earth’ from a solar storm that experts fear will wreak worldwide chaos next year.
Professor Mike Hapgood, who chairs the Space Environment Impacts Experts Group (SEIEG) and advises the Government on space weather, says solar storms, generated by an outburst from the sun, are set to knock out national power grids and Global Positioning Systems.
He believes magnetic rays from the storm will result in widespread blackouts which will plunge homes and businesses into darkness.
It could also lead to potentially deadly knock-on effects, for instance if hydro-electric dams holding back millions of gallons of water are knocked offline.
Early next year, the sun will reach the peak of its 11-year activity cycle, which puts the planet at greater risk of such storms.
And experts say with the planet now relying on the Internet and hi-tech gadgetry, the chaos caused by the 2013 solar storm will have a far greater impact than any in the past.
Prof Hapgood, who studied at Oxford, warned: ‘A big magnetic storm can permeate the Earth’s crust, which can drive electric currents through aluminium or copper wires in the National grid, which could cause a national blackout.
‘Interactions with Earth’s atmosphere can also affect any radio signals. If you had a big storm, GPS might be unavailable for a couple of days.
‘On July 21 this year there was a very large event on the far side of the sun, if it had intercepted Earth we would have had a very large magnetic storm.’
All manner of transport relies on GPS including aircraft and if the systems suddenly collapse, there could be lethal consequences.
He said ‘My main interest is to study the likely extremes in these scenarios. These are enormous events that could have a very significant effect on GDP.
‘The National Grid now relies on warnings from space craft carrying equipment built at Rutherford and they are developing plans on how to evolve.’