#geomagneticstorm — Public Fediverse posts

In case anybody needs something else to worry over...

"Space weather poses an important but under-quantified threat to society. While severe geomagnetic storms are recognized as potential global catastrophes, their socio-economic impacts remain poorly quantified. We present a novel physics-engineering-economic framework that links geophysical drivers to power grid geoelectric fields, transformer vulnerability, and macroeconomic consequences. Using the United States as an example, we estimate daily economic losses for a 250-year geomagnetic storm from transformer thermal heating of 1.81 billion USD (95 percent confidence interval: 1.65 to 1.96 billion USD), disrupting power for approximately 5.1 million people and 135,000 businesses. These estimates are conservative lower bounds, reflecting only transformer thermal heating effects and excluding voltage collapse, cascading failures, and restoration costs. The true societal risk could be substantially higher. Nonetheless, this contribution provides the first nationwide end-to-end coupling from space physics to potential macroeconomic loss, with quantified uncertainties. Our results demonstrate that coupled socio-economic modeling of space weather is feasible and essential, and the framework is scalable and transferable, offering a template for assessing space weather risk to critical infrastructure in other countries."

#SpaceWeather
#GeomagneticStorm
#GridFailure

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2026AV002367?af=R

In case anybody needs something else to worry over...

"Space weather poses an important but under-quantified threat to society. While severe geomagnetic storms are recognized as potential global catastrophes, their socio-economic impacts remain poorly quantified. We present a novel physics-engineering-economic framework that links geophysical drivers to power grid geoelectric fields, transformer vulnerability, and macroeconomic consequences. Using the United States as an example, we estimate daily economic losses for a 250-year geomagnetic storm from transformer thermal heating of 1.81 billion USD (95 percent confidence interval: 1.65 to 1.96 billion USD), disrupting power for approximately 5.1 million people and 135,000 businesses. These estimates are conservative lower bounds, reflecting only transformer thermal heating effects and excluding voltage collapse, cascading failures, and restoration costs. The true societal risk could be substantially higher. Nonetheless, this contribution provides the first nationwide end-to-end coupling from space physics to potential macroeconomic loss, with quantified uncertainties. Our results demonstrate that coupled socio-economic modeling of space weather is feasible and essential, and the framework is scalable and transferable, offering a template for assessing space weather risk to critical infrastructure in other countries."

#SpaceWeather
#GeomagneticStorm
#GridFailure

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2026AV002367?af=R

In case anybody needs something else to worry over...

"Space weather poses an important but under-quantified threat to society. While severe geomagnetic storms are recognized as potential global catastrophes, their socio-economic impacts remain poorly quantified. We present a novel physics-engineering-economic framework that links geophysical drivers to power grid geoelectric fields, transformer vulnerability, and macroeconomic consequences. Using the United States as an example, we estimate daily economic losses for a 250-year geomagnetic storm from transformer thermal heating of 1.81 billion USD (95 percent confidence interval: 1.65 to 1.96 billion USD), disrupting power for approximately 5.1 million people and 135,000 businesses. These estimates are conservative lower bounds, reflecting only transformer thermal heating effects and excluding voltage collapse, cascading failures, and restoration costs. The true societal risk could be substantially higher. Nonetheless, this contribution provides the first nationwide end-to-end coupling from space physics to potential macroeconomic loss, with quantified uncertainties. Our results demonstrate that coupled socio-economic modeling of space weather is feasible and essential, and the framework is scalable and transferable, offering a template for assessing space weather risk to critical infrastructure in other countries."

#SpaceWeather
#GeomagneticStorm
#GridFailure

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2026AV002367?af=R

In case anybody needs something else to worry over...

"Space weather poses an important but under-quantified threat to society. While severe geomagnetic storms are recognized as potential global catastrophes, their socio-economic impacts remain poorly quantified. We present a novel physics-engineering-economic framework that links geophysical drivers to power grid geoelectric fields, transformer vulnerability, and macroeconomic consequences. Using the United States as an example, we estimate daily economic losses for a 250-year geomagnetic storm from transformer thermal heating of 1.81 billion USD (95 percent confidence interval: 1.65 to 1.96 billion USD), disrupting power for approximately 5.1 million people and 135,000 businesses. These estimates are conservative lower bounds, reflecting only transformer thermal heating effects and excluding voltage collapse, cascading failures, and restoration costs. The true societal risk could be substantially higher. Nonetheless, this contribution provides the first nationwide end-to-end coupling from space physics to potential macroeconomic loss, with quantified uncertainties. Our results demonstrate that coupled socio-economic modeling of space weather is feasible and essential, and the framework is scalable and transferable, offering a template for assessing space weather risk to critical infrastructure in other countries."

#SpaceWeather
#GeomagneticStorm
#GridFailure

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2026AV002367?af=R

In case anybody needs something else to worry over...

"Space weather poses an important but under-quantified threat to society. While severe geomagnetic storms are recognized as potential global catastrophes, their socio-economic impacts remain poorly quantified. We present a novel physics-engineering-economic framework that links geophysical drivers to power grid geoelectric fields, transformer vulnerability, and macroeconomic consequences. Using the United States as an example, we estimate daily economic losses for a 250-year geomagnetic storm from transformer thermal heating of 1.81 billion USD (95 percent confidence interval: 1.65 to 1.96 billion USD), disrupting power for approximately 5.1 million people and 135,000 businesses. These estimates are conservative lower bounds, reflecting only transformer thermal heating effects and excluding voltage collapse, cascading failures, and restoration costs. The true societal risk could be substantially higher. Nonetheless, this contribution provides the first nationwide end-to-end coupling from space physics to potential macroeconomic loss, with quantified uncertainties. Our results demonstrate that coupled socio-economic modeling of space weather is feasible and essential, and the framework is scalable and transferable, offering a template for assessing space weather risk to critical infrastructure in other countries."

#SpaceWeather
#GeomagneticStorm
#GridFailure

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2026AV002367?af=R

Map of the August 12, 2026, Total Solar Eclipse 🌑

#ColumbusModule #Eclipse #Falcon9Rocket #GeomagneticStorm #ISS #InternationalSpaceStation #Launch #Magnetosphere

⏩ 2 new pictures and 1 new video from NASA (SVS) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ListFiles?limit=4&user=OptimusPrimeBot&ilshowall=1&offset=20260523125554

NASA Experiment to Track Space ‘Doughnut’ Encircling Earth 🌑

#ColumbusModule #GeomagneticStorm #Heliophysics #ISS #InternationalSpaceStation #Magnetosphere #Moon #NeutralAtomImaging

⏩ 4 new pictures and 3 new videos from NASA (SVS) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ListFiles?limit=12&user=OptimusPrimeBot&ilshowall=1&offset=20260502130226

ISS views Aurora from the November 11-13, 2025 Geomagnetic Storm

#Aurorae #CME #GeomagneticStorm #SolarActivity #SpaceWeather #SunearthInteractions #aurora

⏩ 1 new picture and 1 new video from NASA (SVS) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ListFiles?limit=2&user=OptimusPrimeBot&ilshowall=1&offset=20260327125742

ISS views Aurora from the November 11-13, 2025 Geomagnetic Storm

#Aurorae #CME #GeomagneticStorm #SolarActivity #SpaceWeather #SunearthInteractions #aurora

⏩ 1 new picture and 1 new video from NASA (SVS) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ListFiles?limit=2&user=OptimusPrimeBot&ilshowall=1&offset=20260327125742

No Place To Hide? Regional Resilience And Vulnerability To Global Catastrophic Risk
--
https://doi.org/10.31223/X56B60 <-- shared paper
--
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_catastrophic_risk <-- shared Wikipedia page
--
#GIS #spatial #mapping #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #Agriculture #foodsecurity #watersecurity #EarthScience #geology #risk #hazard #EnvironmentalScience, #EnvironmentalStudies #FoodScience #ForestSciences #Geography #PublicHealth #publicsafety #Global #Catastrophic #NuclearWar #civilisation #Pandemic #HEMP #naturalhazard #Volcanic #vulcanism #Eruption #NearEarthObject #asteroid #GeomagneticStorm #spaceweather #Infrastructure #damage #biology #vegetation #forest #Resilience #Vulnerability #polycrisis

Northern Lights Over North Cork

You don’t expect to stand in a field north of Blarney and watch the northern lights, but here we are. Last night the aurora put on a show visible well into southern Ireland. Bands of pink and magenta hung across thesky, bleeding into that unmistakable...

https://inphotos.org/2026/03/21/northern-lights-over-north-cork/

#astrophotography #aurora #AuroraBorealis #Blarney #Cork #GeomagneticStorm #Ireland #NightSky #NorthernLights #Photo #Photography #RuralIreland #stars

Northern Lights Over North Cork

You don’t expect to stand in a field north of Blarney and watch the northern lights, but here we are. Last night the aurora put on a show visible well into southern Ireland. Bands of pink and magenta hung across the sky, bleeding into that unmistakable green glow along the horizon. To the naked eye nothing could be seen, but the camera pulled out colours that made the whole scene look otherworldly.

A passing car lit up the bare trees on the ridge at just the right moment, backlighting them with a warm glow that played off the green aurora behind. It was one of those happy accidents you couldn’t plan if you tried. Even the electricity poles added something, a reminder that this was a country road in Cork, not the Arctic Circle. These events have become more frequent as we near solar maximum, so keep an eye on the Kp index and have a dark-sky spot in mind, because the next one might be even better.

Could a powerful geomagnetic storm be the reason 8,000 Victorian homes suddenly lost power in January this year?

I had a chat with Dr Richard Marshall from Australian Bureau of Meteorology Space Weather about the origin of solar storms and the risks they present to our communities and critical infrastructure.

So great to be able to have such fantastic and professional insights about these important events and how we, as a society, need to mitigate against them.

https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/earthly-impacts-solar-storms

📸 NASA SVS

#SpaceAustralia #SolarStorm #geomagneticstorm #Astrodon #heliophysics

If you have issues today on the #AmateurRadio #HamRadio #HFbands, BLAME HER! #Solarcycle25 #SolarStorms #SolarStorm #Geomagneticstorm #SpaceWeather #Spacewx

Not one to shy away from a challenge; not going to let a somewhat dismal #spaceweather #spacewx forecast hinder my #amateurradio #hamradio #pota #parksontheair activation this morning. In less than an hour made forty #qrp #morsecode contacts on 40 meters during a #solarcycle25 K5 index #geomagneticstorm.

Experimenting with different configurations of 40 - 15 meter #linkedefhw with #qrpguys mini tuner while hunting #parksontheair #pota #sota #summitsontheair and #DX into Europe. Due to #geomagneticstorm from Earth facing #coronalhole #hfbands were noisy. #solarcycle25 #spaceweather #spacewx

I built a #QRPGuys 40-10 #Minituner a few years ago but never built a wire for it. Thanks to current #Geomagneticstorm conditions, I built a 40 -15 Meter Linked #EFHW that I can use with my #Youkits #YouKitsHB1B #HB1B and my #QRPlabs #QDX. #AmateurRadio #HamRadio is so much fun!

M8.2 solar flare, Strong G4 geomagnetic storm watch

https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/news/view/581/20250531-m8-2-solar-flare-strong-g4-geomagnetic-storm-watch.html

#HackerNews #M8.2SolarFlare #StrongG4Storm #SpaceWeather #SolarActivity #GeomagneticStorm

The May 2024 Event in the Context of Auroral Activity over the past 375 years: https://www.personal.reading.ac.uk/~ym901336/pdfs/435_Lockwood_etal_2024b.pdf / The geomagnetic #superstorm of 10 May 2024 - citizen science observations: https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2024/egusphere-2024-2174/egusphere-2024-2174.pdf / Spatial structures of blue low-latitude #aurora observed from Japan during the extreme #GeomagneticStorm of May 2024: https://earth-planets-space.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40623-024-02090-9

We had more #aurora overnight on 7th/8th October 2024 captured on our #AuroraCam #AllSkyCamera + 2 of our #MeteorCameras (in mono). There was eve a #StableAuroralRedArc #SARArc visible on the all sky cam! Oxfordshire, UK (52' N). Watch the video here:
https://youtu.be/vmpq6uBaQk8
#NorthernLights #MidLatitudeAurora #GeomagneticStorm #SolarStorm

Very excited to see a southern hemisphere photographer and photo take out this win!

Also, we really need to appreciate our magnetic field more IMO. Not only does it protect us, it plays a role in us seeing these beautiful curtains of light!

Nice write-up here from Helen Manyard-Casely for #SpaceAustralia about Larryn Rae’s spectacular shot of the red aurora which took out the best in category at the Astronomy Photography of the Year awards - first for Aurora Australis.

https://www.spaceaustralia.com/news/aurora-australis-has-its-moment

#Aurora #Astrodon #GeomagneticStorm #Astrophotography

[May be behind a paywall] The Strongest #SolarStorm in 20 Years Did Little Damage, but Worse #SpaceWeather Is Coming

Years of careful planning helped safeguard against last weekend’s severe space weather, but we still don’t know how we’d cope with a monster event

By Jonathan O'Callaghan & Lee Billings
May 16, 2024

"For years, we have been warned about impending doom from the sun. If pointed in our direction, powerful eruptions of radiation and plasma from our star can strike our planet to supercharge Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field, effectively hitting a global 'reset' button on much of our #ModernTechnology. A sufficiently intense bombardment could raise a #Geomagneticstorm that would push satellites out of orbit, short out submarine cables that suture together the #Internet and plunge the world into darkness with massive #blackouts from collapsed #PowerGrids. Yet this past weekend, when one of the strongest solar outbursts in 20 years blasted our planet, we managed to emerge unscathed thanks to years of careful public and private planning.

"The storm has ebbed, although the solar region that sparked it has since spat out additional monstrous flares—fortunately no longer targeted at Earth because of the sun’s spin [which will change in a short time, as that spot will once again be Earth-facing]. But while we’ve passed our biggest test yet, experts say now is not the time to let down our guard: the question of more cataclysmic solar activity isn’t a matter of 'if' but 'when.'

"'This is a success story,' says Shawn Dahl, a space weather forecaster at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s [#NOAA] Space Weather Prediction Center (#SWPC) in Boulder, Colo., but the weekend’s storm was 'nowhere close' to the strength of more powerful known historical events. Is it time to put our feet up? 'Heck no,' he says.

"On May 8, after ground- and space-based telescopes detected multiple explosive outbursts from the sun headed for Earth, the SWPC issued a warning of an imminent severe space weather event. At least seven of these outbursts, known as coronal mass ejections, or #CMEs, walloped our planet with billions of tons of solar plasma—an interplanetary punch that left Earth’s magnetic field ringing and made the upper atmosphere swell, almost as if bruised. The resulting geomagnetic storm was the most severe since 2003. It posed potentially grave dangers to global infrastructure while also bathing much of the world in achingly beautiful #auroral displays.

"At present, it’s difficult to say just how close we came to catastrophe because many companies— from grid controllers to satellite operators—do not like to reveal information on how a geomagnetic storm affected them, says Daniel Welling, a climate and space scientist at the University of Michigan. "'They don’t want to look like they’re vulnerable,' he says. 'Satellite operators have to insure their spacecraft, and that can be very expensive.' Yet various scattered reports are already offering some insight into the storm’s disruptive effects. Flight trackers showed airlines rerouting planes to avoid Earth’s poles, where crews and passengers would have been exposed to worrisome spikes in #CosmicRadiation from the storm. Transpower, New Zealand’s state-owned enterprise running that nation’s electric power, said in a statement that it had preemptively 'switched off some circuits across the country on Saturday [May 11],' and as a result, there was 'no impact on New Zealand’s electricity supply.' In Minnesota, the firm Minnesota Power opened capacitor banks to deal with possible effects from the storm. Similar precautions were likely taken at other power grids around the world, too, although the lack of information makes it 'tremendously' difficult to know how effective those measures were, Welling says.

"Geomagnetic storms can also play havoc with signals from #GPS satellites, and multiple farmers reported issues with GPS-guided farming equipment over the weekend. In South Dakota, one farmer’s tractor started #DrivingInCircles during the storm, and multiple farmers reported outages on social media. 'Our GPS on both the planter and the strip tiller were absolutely bonkers today,' one commenter wrote on Reddit. 'I saw this post and looked ... no GPS,' said another. LandMark Implement, a John Deere dealership based in Nebraska and Kansas, texted its customers an advisory to 'turn off' GPS devices on their farming equipment. 'The base stations were sending out corrections that have been affected by the geomagnetic storm and were causing drastic shifts in the field,' the company noted in an online post. LandMark declined to comment further when contacted.

"The storm posed hazards in space as well. Seven astronauts on the International Space Station were mostly safe from the storm’s effects, #NASA said, but did have to take some precautions. 'The crew was told to avoid lower-shielded areas of the space station out of an abundance of caution,' says Sandra Jones, a spokesperson for NASA’s Johnson Space Center. 'Certain areas provide less protection from radiation, such as the air lock, while other areas, such as crew quarters, provide enhanced protection. The crew was never in any danger, and the energy levels have since decreased.' Other satellite operators experienced greater difficulties. One company in the U.K., Sen, which streams 4K video from a satellite in low-Earth orbit, chose to power down its spacecraft for four days to prevent any damage from the storm, such as fried circuit boards or electronic failures. 'It was in an idle mode,' says Marcin Bujar, spacecraft operations lead at Sen. 'We just kept the bare minimum on—the flight computer and radio receiver.' This prevented the satellite from carrying out some tasks, including planned observations of flooding in South America and wildfires in Canada. 'It definitely had an impact,' Bujar says."

Read more:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-strongest-solar-storm-in-20-years-did-little-damage-but-worse-space/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

#SolarCycle25 #CarringtonEvent #SolarFlares #Auroras