Fears ‘space weather’ could cripple satellites

A SPACE weather strategy is to be published this year as concern mounts over powerful solar flares crippling satellites and shutting down swathes of Britain’s electricity grid.

Amid fears they could also disrupt radio communications and have major consequences for planes and navigation, the Government’s five-year plan will set out how the UK will reduce the threat from extreme space weather.

Solar flares, which Nasa describes as the “most powerful explosions in our solar system”, release surges of radiation into space.

They can bombard the Earth’s upper atmosphere with electrically charged particles.

MP Paul Maynard hopes to persuade the

Government to prepare for the damage that an “unavoidable” major solar flare could cause.

The Blackpool North and Cleveleys MP fears that a repeat of the 1859 solar storm which produced the Carrington Event – reportedly shutting down telegraph networks in North America, Europe and parts of Asia and Australia – would be far more serious this time around.

He said: “I was concerned that in the light of the pandemic, where we had prepared for the wrong type of flu as it were, it was worth investigating whether we were preparing for the right sort of solar flare. If we don’t make all the right preparations we may find that our satellite systems are knocked out and we basically become isolated from the outside world.”

Mr Maynard is seeking assurances that the UK’S network of electricity transformers can survive a major solar flare and wants to know how quickly power could be restored.

Amanda Solloway, minister for science, research and innovation, said: “The department will publish a new space weather strategy later this year, which will set out a five-year road map for how we intend to boost resilience and build on existing UK capacity in preparing for and mitigating space weather impacts. The UK is a world leader in space weather forecasting.”