Carrington-Like Solar Storm May Hit Earth Causing $41.5 Billion Daily Financial Losses for the US
A Carrington-Like powerful Solar Storm may hit the earth in next few decades, causing a blackout which will result in $41.5 Billion daily financial losses for the United State only, warned a recently published study. The Solar Tornado of 1859, called the Carrington Event was the most powerful geomagnetic solar storm throughout solar cycle 10, ranging from 1855 to 1867. The event took place on September 1–2, 1859, under which, a massive solar coronal mass expulsion struck the magnetosphere of Earth, resulting one of the largest geomagnetic tempests on record.
Now the scientists are expecting another Carrington-Like powerful Solar Storm, which may force the United State to face a daily economic loss, worth of multi-billion dollars. The happening of the next solar storm will cause some long-lasting electricity blackouts which may cost the US the loss of nearly tens of billions of dollars, suggested a new study published in ‘Space Weather’.
In 2012, a research paper, published by space physicist Pete Riley, of Predictive Science in San Diego, California, warned about the possibilities of another Carrington-like event and suggested 12 percent chances of its happening within the next decade. Now, the new Findings of published in Space Weather unveiled about the financial impact of such an extremely powerful solar storm on the economic system of the United System. As per the study, if the next solar storm hit the magnetosphere of Earth, then the US will be one of the extremely affected areas. The event could make transformers cataleptic, which is implemented to transmit electricity all through the power grids of the US, which can trigger power blackouts.
The earlier studies only revealed about the direct economic losses about the blackout zones and overlooked the extreme indirect impacts of the space weather on the local and international supply chain. But the new journal of American Geophysical Union focused on the local economic losses, that is the US expected to face if the solar storm hit the earth in coming decades. As per the study, the direct financial losses will be incurred from the commotion of electricity and it will acquire the 49% of the entire possible macroeconomic costs. The blackout scenario is estimated to affect 66% of the US populace, causing domestic economic loss of $41.5 billion per day, suggested the new study. Similarly, the loss of the international supply chain is estimated to stand at $7 billion.
