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UK report provides guidelines for dealing with solar storms

JUL 29, 2015
Physics Today

Guardian : Any day now Earth could experience a large-scale coronal mass ejection from the Sun that could cause far-reaching problems ranging from power outages to communications disruptions. Now the UK’s Department for Business Innovation and Skills has issued a report, Space Weather Preparedness Strategy , which spells out the potential dangers of such weather events and the steps the government should take to mitigate their effects. Among other things, the report proposes increasing the resilience of the nation’s infrastructure, establishing a system of warnings and alerts, and planning effective emergency response measures. Based on the Carrington event of 1859 , people could have as little as 12 hours’ advance warning of any similar impending severe solar weather event.

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