- Starion UK prepares strategic report on the technological and socio-economic impacts of severe space weather on UK critical national infrastructure.
- The report focusses on four critical infrastructure sectors identified as most vulnerable to direct impact from space weather: space, energy, communications and transport.
- Recommendations include backup power solutions, coordinated and collaborative responses in specific areas, and a centralised public messaging system.
Starion UK and its partners, know.space and Northumbria University, have prepared a strategic report on the technological and socio-economic impacts of severe space weather events in the UK, commissioned as part of the 5-year, £20 million Space Weather Instrumentation, Measurement, Modelling and Risk (SWIMMR) programme. Focusing on four key critical national infrastructure (CNI) sectors, the ‘Space Weather Impacts on UK CNI’ report provides a high-level impact assessment and recommendations to Government policymakers and other critical infrastructure decision-makers to improve the UK’s resilience to space weather.
Space weather refers to the dynamic conditions in near-Earth space that result from interactions between solar activity and Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere. Although effects such as aurora near the Earth’s magnetic poles are benign, others can directly or indirectly impact a wide range of critical infrastructures and services, including power supplies, communications systems and navigational systems for air, sea and land transport.
Severe space weather events are not new, but society’s exposure to their impact has grown significantly in the last few decades. This is due to our increasing reliance on technologies such as satellites for communications and positioning, navigation and timing (PNT), and the power grids that support these and other fundamental services, such as transport, health and finance.
Alastair Pidgeon, Principal Solution Architect at Starion, explains: “Although the last severe space weather event occurred over 160 years ago, the impact of a similar event today would likely have far reaching impacts because of our dependence on technologies potentially vulnerable to its effects. Almost all sectors of our economy are dependent on the four critical infrastructure sectors we examined – communications, energy, transport and space – with interdependencies also between these sectors. Space weather impacts on any one of these sectors will have potentially serious consequences in the other sectors, during a severe event and potentially afterwards as well.”
Focus sectors and recommendations
The report focuses on the critical infrastructure sectors that were identified as most vulnerable to direct impact from space weather: space, energy, communications (including internet and data centres) and transport. As well as the technical impacts of space weather, an initial assessment of the associated socio-economic impacts is made in the report for each of the sectors.
The findings are based on engagement with over 100 industry, government and academic stakeholders in the UK, Europe and US. Among the report’s recommendations in preparation for severe space weather events are:
- An evaluation of backup power solutions for trains, signalling systems and critical communications networks to ensure continuity of service and safety
- Coordinated response protocols between airlines, air traffic controllers and airports,
- Exploration of devices to block geomagnetically induced currents in the UK’s electricity transmission and distribution networks
- International collaboration on future space weather monitoring satellites
- A centralised public messaging system to deliver information during extreme events.
Starion’s space weather and infrastructure resilience experts were supported by know.space on the socio-economic impacts and Northumbria University on the space weather science.
The publication of the report complements other space weather projects being undertaken by the team for the European Space Agency, including EuroGIC, a web application for electricity transmission operators that will model geomagnetically induced currents (GIC) in power grids across Europe, providing information to users in near-real time. In another project, Starion is leading an assessment of the space weather risks to autonomous transport, the first major study of its kind (the Starion-led Space Weather Autonomous Vehicle Effects (SWAVE) project). Finally, Starion is contributing to an impact assessment of the costs and benefits of a European space weather operations service in a project called Socio-Economic Impact Assessment of European Space Weather Service.
Further information
Download the report here: https://epubs.stfc.ac.uk/work/61075921
Contact details: Isabelle Roels, VP Marketing and Communications (i.roels@stariongroup.eu)
