A ten-year lull in the Sun’s activity has coincided with the growth of vulnerable satellite-based technologies such as the internet and GPS, said Professor Sir John Beddington.
The Sun is due to become more turbulent as it approaches the next ‘solar maximum’ peak in its cycle in 2013. Damage to commerce could push the total financial impact past $2trillion (£1.23trillion). There is only one satellite in space with the job of detecting solar storms, and it is 14 years old.
Sir John told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC: ‘We’ve had a relatively quiet period of space weather. We can’t expect that quiet period to continue.
At the same time, the potential vulnerability of our systems has increased dramatically – whether it is the smart grid in our electricity systems or the ubiquitous use of GPS in just about everything we use these days.
‘We need to be thinking about our ability to categorise and explain, and give early warning when particular types of space weather are likely.’
Experts told the meeting that last week’s widely reported solar flare, the strongest in four years, could be a foretaste of serious things to come.
Despite it being a weak event, it resulted in airlines re-routing flights away from polar regions and disrupted communications in parts of the western Pacific and Asia.
The most powerful solar storm on record, in 1859, sent induced currents surging through telegraph wires that set buildings on fire.
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