Space Weather Effects on Critical Infrastructure

TL;DR

This paper reviews how space weather, driven by solar activity, impacts Earth's critical infrastructure like power grids and communication systems, emphasizing the importance of forecasting and preparedness.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of space weather phenomena, their effects on infrastructure, and details on Hungarian and global forecasting capabilities.

Findings

Space weather affects power and communication infrastructure.

Solar activity induces currents damaging to infrastructure.

Forecasting centers are vital for mitigation strategies.

Abstract

Gas pipelines, transmission lines, overhead wires, transformers, GNSS navigation, and telecommunication systems are part of critical infrastructure. Industry, transportation, service operations, farming, and everyday life highly depend on this infrastructure. However, these systems are very sensitive to solar activity. Therefore, all activities above are vulnerable and defenseless against the catastrophic changes in Earth's cosmic environment. The Solar System is dominated by the influence of our star. A small fraction of the energy produced in the core of our star turns into a magnetic field and emits the constant high-velocity flow, the solar wind. Solar magnetic activity produces radiation and ejects matter from the upper atmosphere of our star. The magnetic field of the solar wind interacts with the planetary magnetic fields and atmospheres. These phenomena, called Space Weather have a serious influence on the radiation environment of Earth where telecommunication, Global Navigation Satellite System, meteorological, and other purpose satellites are located. The conductivity and transparency of the higher partly ionized atmospheric layer, the ionosphere also depend on solar radiation and activity. This fact makes the navigation and communication systems dependent on solar activity. Finally, the solar magnetic activity creates magnetic variations in the terrestrial magnetic field and induces currents in gas pipelines, transmission lines, overhead wires, and transformers. In this short briefing, we introduce the solar activity phenomena, and their influence on our planet's cosmic neighborhood and provide a detailed description of the Space Weather effects on critical infrastructure. We describe the Hungarian national and global space weather forecast centers and capabilities. Finally, we share some guidelines on how to prepare for extreme space weather events.