From: here@is.invalid   
      
   What a Major Solar Storm Could Do to Our Planet   
      
   Disturbances on the sun may have the potential to devastate our power   
   grid and communication systems. When the next big storm arrives, will   
   we be prepared for it?   
      
      
      
   His official title, one shared by no more than a few dozen Americans,   
   is space-weather forecaster. Ever since leaving the Air Force, Tegnell   
   has worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's   
   Space Weather Prediction Center, in Boulder, Colorado: ten hours a   
   day, forty hours a week, three decades spent staring at real-time   
   images of the sun. Eleven other forecasters work there as well. The   
   remaining ones are employed by the only similar institution in the   
   country: the Space Weather Operations Center, run by the Department of   
   Defense on Offutt Air Force Base, in Sarpy County, Nebraska.   
   ...   
   ...   
   By contrast, most people have no idea that there is weather in outer   
   space, let alone what its fluctuations might mean for our planet.   
   ...   
   ...   
   In 2019, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, surveying the   
   landscape of possible disasters, concluded that only two natural   
   hazards have the capacity to simultaneously affect the entire nation.   
   One is a pandemic. The other is a severe solar storm.   
   ...   
   ...   
   But "space-weather forecaster" is an optimistic misnomer; for the most   
   part, he and his colleagues can't predict what will happen in outer   
   space. All they can do is try to figure out what's happening there   
   right now, preferably fast enough to limit the impact on our planet   
      
   https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/03/04/what-a-major-solar   
   storm-could-do-to-our-planet   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)