Solar superstorm approaching Earth may lead to 'internet apocalypse', claims researcher

A new study found that a huge solar superstorm is approaching the Earth which could potentially wreak havoc destroying infrastructures and cause an "internet apocalypse." The research paper was published by Sangeeta Abdu Jyothi who is an assistant professor at the University of California, Irvin. Stating her concerns bout the vulnerability in the global internet communication structure, she presented her findings at the SIGCOMM 2021 data communication conference.

In her research paper titled "Solar Superstorms: Planning for an Internet Apocalypse," she explained what will happen if there is a global Internet collapse and how will it lead to a massive economic impact.  "A global Internet outage lasting weeks! Can that happen? My paper "Solar Superstorms: Planning for an Internet Apocalypse" at #SIGCOMM'21 takes the first look at an important problem that the networking community had been overlooking until now [sic]," she tweeted along with embedding the link of her research paper. 

'Solar storms will not have much impact on the local and regional internet infrastructure' 

In her research, Jyothi claimed that the solar storms will not have much impact on the local and regional internet infrastructure as they mostly use fibre optic. She stated that while power may return, there is a greater risk for long undersea cables, often not grounded well, that connects continents through the internet, even if they are connected via optic cables. She stated that repeaters meant for boosting up the current at regular intervals are likely to fail which can pose a serious risk during a solar storm. However, she said that the world has not witnessed such an event since 1859, the possibility of occurring it over the next decade range from 1.6 to 12%. A solar storm of moderate nature occurred in 1921 as well as in 1989. 

'Long-distance fibre cables and communication satellites more prone to damage' 

The research paper also stated that long-distance fibre cables and communication satellites are more prone to damage from solar storms through induced currents and direct exposure. She further stated that although such storms are rare, determining the extent of the damage becomes tough due to the absence of modern electrical grids and the internet. She claimed that if such a storm occurs, Asia is likely to suffer less as Singapore, the main hub for many undersea cables, lies on the Equator, whereas, the regions with high latitude are likely to suffer more.  

Image Credits: Pixabay/Representative/Image