by Jean Kumagai
Every so often the Sun emits an explosive burst of charged particles
that makes its way to Earth and, under just the right conditions, wreaks
havoc on power grids. A powerful geomagnetic storm in March 1989
blacked out the entire province of Quebec, leaving millions of customers
in the dark and damaging transformers as far south as New Jersey. Are
we prepared for a repeat? Thanks to two new satellites, we might be better prepared than ever. The Deep Space Climate Observatory, which will measure the solar wind at the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point, is set for launch next year. And an experimental solar-sail mission dubbed Sunjammer could become the basis for a space-weather early-warning system. Read morehttp://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/policy/protecting-the-power-grid-from-solar-storms
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