Severe Space Weather Events—Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts: A Workshop Report (SSB)

Released 01.05.09

Severe space weather—intense disturbances in the Earth’s upper atmosphere and near-space environment cause by solar magnetic activity—has caused major problems in the past including extensive power outages, large-scale rerouting of airline flights, outages of communications satellites, and disruption of GPS systems.  Such disturbances occur primarily during periods of increased solar activity, but events have been known to happen when the sun is relatively quiet.  As society becomes more dependent on technologies that are susceptible to extreme space weather, concern about the nation’s vulnerability to and the economic and social costs of such storms has grown.  Few studies of these issues exist, however, and in 2007 the Space Studies Board of the NRC, with the support of NASA, held a workshop to assess the nation’s current and future ability to manage the effects of space weather and their societal and economic impacts.  This report presents a summary of workshop presentations including a retrospective look at space weather impacts; the infrastructure for current space weather infrastructure and user perspectives on those products; user needs; and future vulnerabilities, risks, and solutions.