Devastating solar storm that could knock-out power and communications worldwide is a matter of 'when, not if' warns Met Office as the ESA begins testing its Solar Orbiter satellite
- Solar storms are streams of radioactive particles launched from the sun
- They 'pose a threat to national infrastructure, UK industry and the wider public'
- The storms are the focus of a new ESA satellite mission dubbed the Solar Orbiter
A devastating solar storm which could fry power grids and knock out communication systems on Earth is a matter of 'when, not if', the Met Office warned.
Solar storms – high-speed streams of radioactive particles launched from the sun – pose a threat to national infrastructure, UK industry and the wider public, it said.
These potentially devastating storms are the focus of a new European Space Agency satellite dubbed the Solar Orbiter – a mission part-funded by the UK Space Agency.
British engineers are putting the finishing touches to the satellite this week before sending it to Germany to begin a year-long test campaign.
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Airbus engineers working on the probe. British engineers are putting the finishing touches to the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter satellite this week before sending it to Germany to begin a year-long test campaign
Catherine Burnett, head of the Met Office's Space Weather Monitoring Unit, said the probe will help scientists spot and prepare for future solar storms.
The largest solar storm ever recorded, The Carrington Event in 1859, took out telegraph machines across the US, purportedly causing sparks to fly from equipment – some bad enough to set fires inside offices.
Scientists have previously warned that a repeat of the event could grind the world's high-tech infrastructure to a halt.
'The threat of space weather to national infrastructure, UK industry and the wider public is such that it is now part of the Government National Risk Register and there is a need for forecasting to try to mitigate that risk,' Ms Burnett told the Telegraph.
'We try to advise when space weather will have an impact on technology, so we're looking for solar flares which can knock out high frequency telecommunications, coronal mass ejections which have the potential to take out our power grids and solar radiation which impact satellite communications systems and GPS.
'We think that the big solar incidents, like the Carrington Event, happen between one in 100 or one in 200 years, so it is a case of "when, not if" we have one.'
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A devastating solar storm is a matter of 'when, not if', according to the Met Office. Solar storms - high-speed clouds of radioactive particles - are the focus of the Solar Orbiter mission (artist's impression) which will launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 2020
The ESA's Solar Orbiter will observe the sun's poles to study its atmosphere, known as the corona.
This is the region where solar storms originate, and scientists hope that shedding light on how the corona forms will also provide answers on what triggers the storms.
The satellite is due to launch in 202 from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA.
It was constructed at an Airbus factory in Stevenage, and is currently being prepared to travel to Germany for intensive testing ahead of its flight.
Solar Orbiter will fly within 27 million miles (43 million km) of the solar surface to closely inspect our star's poles.
Its heat shields are expected to reach temperatures of up to 600°C (1,112°F) during its closest flybys.
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This image captured by Nasa shows a solar flare. The largest solar storm ever recorded, The Carrington Event in 1859, took out telegraph machines across the US, reportedly causing sparks to fly from some equipment - some bad enough to set fires
Engineers designed the spacecraft to withstand extremes of temperature –scorching heat from the sun battering one side of the satellite, while the other remains frozen because the orbit keeps it in permanent shadow.
UK Space Agency Head of Science Chris Lee said: 'This is an exciting time for solar science.
'UK research and engineering teams are at the heart of this mission which will help us understand more about our star – the sun – and its effects on us all here on Earth.'
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Pictured are the satellite's dense heat shield, including holes for its telescopes to peak through. The Solar Orbiter will be loaded with a carefully selected set of 10 telescopes and direct sensing instruments
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