{"id":678722,"date":"2026-09-08T15:20:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T15:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/678722\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T15:20:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T15:20:31","slug":"researchers-calculated-what-an-extreme-solar-storm-would-do-to-the-us-power-grid-and-economy-the-numbers-are-staggering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/678722\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers Calculated What an Extreme Solar Storm Would Do to the US Power Grid and Economy the Numbers Are Staggering"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>NASA\u2019s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a strong solar flare on 8 May 2024. The image shows a blend of 171- and 131-angstrom light, subsets of extreme ultraviolet light. Credit: NASA\/SDO<\/p>\n

In 1967, a solar storm\u00a0nearly triggered<\/a>\u00a0World War III by jamming early-warning radar systems in the United States, causing U.S. leaders to think the Soviet Union was responsible. Though society averted catastrophe thanks to some timely intel from solar forecasters, the threat from space weather remains real and present.<\/p>\n

Solar, or geomagnetic, storms form as the Sun expels plasma and magnetic field from its corona during\u00a0coronal mass ejections<\/a>. After traversing space and encountering Earth\u2019s magnetic field, the energy can interact with conducting materials such as the crust or ocean and induce\u00a0geoelectric fields<\/a>. The currents destabilize electrical transmission as they flow over the\u00a0extrahigh-voltage transformers<\/a>\u00a0that toggle electricity voltage in the grid.<\/p>\n

Yet despite their potential for havoc,\u00a0geomagnetic storms<\/a>\u00a0are an underquantified threat. Existing socioeconomic assessments of space weather are often siloed by discipline and overlook the relationship between geophysical drivers and the function of the power grid.<\/p>\n

To comprehensively assess the threat from space weather,\u00a0Oughton et al.<\/a>\u00a0developed a novel framework to estimate the economic consequences of a 1-in-250-year (250-year, in short) geomagnetic storm in the United States. The model combines physics, engineering, and economics to characterize hazards, vulnerability in the power grid, and potential socioeconomic consequences under varying storm severities.<\/p>\n

To validate the model, the authors compared simulated effects at electric substations to measurements taken by the\u00a0Tennessee Valley Authority<\/a>\u00a0during the 2024 Gannon storm.<\/p>\n

During a 100-year geomagnetic storm, 3.5 million people and 91,000 businesses are predicted to lose power, with daily economic losses of $1.22 billion. A 250-year storm, the most intense storm evaluated, would affect up to 5 million Americans and more than 135,000 businesses. Such an extreme storm would cause direct losses of roughly $980 million per day and total losses of $1.81 billion per day.<\/p>\n

The study provides a rigorous assessment of the socioeconomic hazard posed by space weather and offers direction for investment in the power grid to safeguard against future storms. The authors note that future research should examine cascading power grid dynamics and multihazard interactions, for example, if a geomagnetic storm hit during a heat wave or hurricane. (AGU Advances,\u00a0https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1029\/2026AV002367<\/a>, 2026)<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in EOS Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00d7<\/p>\n

Thank you! One more thing…<\/p>\n

Please check your inbox and confirm your subscription.<\/p>\n


\n \"Add
\n <\/a><\/p>\n


\n \"Follow
\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a strong solar flare on 8 May 2024. The image…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[77],"tags":[18,19,17,5526,133,19343,26282],"class_list":["post-678722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-power-grid","tag-science","tag-solar-flare","tag-solar-storm"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117236101563726679","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}