Building Resilient Infrastructure for Space Weather

Living with a star means that we, and any infrastructure we build in space or on Earth, are at the mercy of the Sun’s explosive phenomena such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections, known as “space weather”. Extreme space weather is the ultimate black swan event: a low probability, high impact hazard that can disrupt critical infrastructure in space and on Earth. The famous Carrington Event of 1859 melted telegraph wires and electrocuted operators; today’s equivalent could collapse power grids, destroy satellites, and shower Mars-bound astronauts with severe radiation. This talk examines space weather’s physical mechanisms, the history of extreme solar events, critical infrastructure vulnerabilities, and how forecasting and monitoring capabilities can be exploited to help mitigate the risk.