“With this AI, it is now possible to make rapid and accurate global predictions and inform decisions in the event of a solar storm, thereby minimizing - or even preventing - devastation to modern society,” said Vishal Upendran of the Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics in India, in a March article published by NASA. That could be just enough time to take sensitive systems offline, NASA writes. Scientists with NASA and other government agencies are also using artificial intelligence to develop technology that, NASA says, can help predict geomagnetic disturbances a half-hour before they occur. The space agency launched its Parker Space Probe in 2018 to gather information on solar conditions and solar wind, which is responsible for sending solar particles toward Earth. NASA, meanwhile, is actively working on technology that could predict potential internet-disrupting solar activity. ‘Extreme threat’: Large area of southern US at dangerous ‘wet bulb temperature’ “In addition, the risk of geomagnetic storms and devastating effects on our society is presently increasing as we approach the next ‘solar maximum’ - a peak in the Sun’s 11-year activity cycle - which is expected to arrive sometime in 2025,” wrote Vanessa Thomas, a science writer at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.Ī report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) further noted that the current solar cycle is becoming active at a faster rate than scientists predicted, though they ultimately expect an “average” amount of activity through the rest of the cycle, according to the article.īut that hasn’t stopped folks from running with the idea that an “internet apocalypse” - a term made popular by a researcher at the University of California, Irvine, in a 2021 study - could soon be upon us. In recent weeks, users on social media have been deliberating the possibility of a widespread internet outage caused by a coronal mass injection - one so powerful that it causes a geomagnetic storm that could knock out online communication for months and cause devastation to the worldwide economy.Ĭoncerns over such a scenario were partially fueled by a recent NASA article detailing the space agency’s efforts to predict especially powerful solar storms that potentially could have disruptive effects on telecommunications, satellites and power grids.

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