{"id":2279,"date":"2026-09-07T01:21:52","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T22:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/?p=2279"},"modified":"2026-09-07T01:24:55","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T22:24:55","slug":"scientists-have-confirmed-that-space-weather-affects-spacecraft-astronaut-safety-radio-communications-gps-and-power-grids-on-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/2026\/09\/07\/scientists-have-confirmed-that-space-weather-affects-spacecraft-astronaut-safety-radio-communications-gps-and-power-grids-on-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists have confirmed that space weather affects spacecraft, astronaut safety, radio communications, GPS, and power grids on Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

The effects of solar storms may be limitless. Observations have shown that electrical currents in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, which can affect satellites, communications, and navigation signals, increase as the solar wind intensifies.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Extreme space weather events can force aircraft to divert routes or make unscheduled landings, according to a new study from the University of Surrey. Extreme space weather events can significantly increase radiation exposure at typical flight altitudes of 8 to 14 km and cause malfunctions in aircraft electronics, posing a safety risk.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The atmosphere provides some protection, but radiation levels on many commercial flights are higher than at ground level and can increase sharply during magnetic storms. According to measurements by the Surrey Space Centre, a strong magnetic storm in November 2025 briefly increased radiation levels by nearly 10 times the normal flight conditions at high altitudes, as reported in the Journal of Space Weather and Space Climat.<\/span><\/p>\n

Historical evidence suggests that the largest solar storm on record in 1956 may have exposed passengers to cosmic radiation equivalent to a year’s worth of radiation received on Earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

High-energy particles from space can also interfere with onboard electronics, causing sporadic malfunctions\u2014small errors that can accumulate and disable critical systems. Last year, Airbus temporarily grounded 6,000 A320 aircraft after discovering a vulnerability in the flight control computer to intense solar radiation following the October 2025 incident when a JetBlue flight from Cancun to Newark made an emergency landing in Florida. In extreme situations, the number of sporadic malfunctions can increase from a few per hour to thousands.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nGC\/Pixabay<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The greatest risks are associated with polar routes, such as between London Heathrow Airport and Vancouver International Airport, where the Earth’s magnetic field is weakest, although during strong geomagnetic storms its influence can extend further south.<\/span><\/p>\n

Researchers say existing aviation safety systems focus primarily on routine radiation exposure without fully considering extreme space weather events. They call for clearer guidance and better integration of space weather data into flight planning.<\/span><\/p>\n

A team of scientists has proposed a new atmospheric radiation scale for aviation to help make more informed decisions in aviation, helping operators act quickly to protect passengers, crew, and critical onboard systems.<\/span><\/p>\n

A stream of high-energy particles from a distant supernova explosion may have caused a crowded passenger plane to suddenly lose altitude in late October 2025, forcing it to make an emergency landing.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The incident occurred on October 30 and involved a JetBlue Airbus A320 en route from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey. According to reports, the plane suddenly and sharply descended for no apparent reason while over Florida. Although the pilots quickly regained control of the aircraft, at least 15 passengers were injured, forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing at Tampa International Airport. Earlier this week, Airbus issued a statement attributing the incident to “intense solar radiation,” which could have corrupted “data critical to the operation of flight control systems.” The manufacturer subsequently grounded 6,000 A320 aircraft to release software updates to address the vulnerability.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

But there’s a catch: solar radiation levels on October 30 were unremarkable and far from levels that would affect the aircraft’s electronics, said Clive Dyer, a space weather and radiation expert at the University of Surrey in the UK. Instead, Dyer, who has studied the effects of solar radiation on aircraft electronics for decades, believes the stricken plane’s onboard computer may have been hit by a cosmic ray\u2014a stream of high-energy particles from the explosion of a distant star that could travel millions of years before reaching Earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cosmic rays can interact with modern microelectronics and alter the state of a circuit. They can cause a simple bit flip, for example, from 0 to 1 or from 1 to 0. They can distort information and lead to malfunctions. But they can also cause hardware failures by inducing current in an electronic device and rendering it inoperable.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nIn late October, a JetBlue Airbus A320 plunged into freefall, presumably due to exposure to cosmic rays. SOPA Images\/Getty Images<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Cosmic rays often occur when massive stars explode in supernovas at the end of their lives. The explosions accelerate streams of protons, scattering them across the universe at the speed of light. Cosmic rays constantly impact the Earth’s atmosphere, interacting with air molecules and generating streams of exotic particles such as muons, high-energy neutrons, and positrons. When these particles fall to Earth, they can hit electronic circuits inside an aircraft sensor or onboard computer, causing what researchers call a single-point fault.<\/span><\/p>\n

Solar flares, such as solar discharges, also generate such particles and can be tens of times, and in extreme cases thousands of times, more destructive than particles from cosmic ray showers. As the Sun becomes more active, incidents caused by isolated malfunctions in aircraft electronics may become more frequent.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, less than two weeks after the JetBlue incident, potentially dangerous levels of solar radiation caused by a powerful solar flare persisted in the atmosphere at flight altitudes for several days. Therefore, Airbus’s software update makes sense, although, according to Dyer, solar activity could not have been the cause of the BlueJet accident.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Dyer, the effects of cosmic radiation on spacecraft and aircraft electronics has been his life’s work. In the 1980s, he was part of a team that investigated isolated malfunctions in spacecraft and later used radiation monitors on board Concorde. He believes that isolated malfunctions in aircraft electronics caused by cosmic rays, while rare, are not unprecedented.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, Dyer believes the 2008 Quantas Flight 72 incident was likely caused by a similar particle intrusion. The stricken aircraft, an Airbus A330, twice nosedived over the Pacific Ocean, creating brief periods of near-weightlessness. Unfortunately, the passengers were unprepared for the sudden release, and many suffered serious injuries.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dyer, who was acting as a consultant to the investigation at the time, stated that although the incident was attributed to faulty electronic sensors on the aircraft, the investigation concluded without establishing a definitive cause. He believes that sunlight can significantly increase the level of particulate matter by a factor of a thousand.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Met Office and the Department for Transport have published new guidance on how space weather can impact communications, navigation and other technologies used in the transport industry, to help operators understand the potential impacts and prepare for them.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The guide combines the expertise of the Met Office’s Space Weather Prediction Centre with knowledge of the transport industry to help decision-makers understand how space weather impacts transport operations and use Met Office advisories to take appropriate action during space weather events. The guide covers the aviation, maritime, rail, and road transport sectors and includes case studies from recent space weather events.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although severe disturbances are rare, space weather can impact transportation. The role of the 24\/7 space weather forecasting centers is to use their expertise to help people understand the risks and, crucially, take action to prevent the most severe impacts. This guide aims to dispel myths about the warnings and advisories issued by the Met Office and help key transportation operators obtain the information they need to make critical mitigation decisions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The guide covers space weather terminology and notifications, as well as information on the potential impacts of events such as solar flares, geomagnetic storms, and solar radiation storms, broken down by transportation mode. Risks highlighted include disruption of high-frequency radio communications, GNSS\/GPS positioning errors, and, in the most severe cases, the possibility of localized power outages. Most space weather events have little impact on day-to-day transportation operations, but this guide is intended to help operators understand when they may experience impacts during periods of heightened activity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Along with case studies of events in May 2024 and September 2017, the guide examines the Carrington Event of 1859, considered the most intense space weather event on record. Because society at the time relied much less on technology, the impacts were limited to compass errors, disruptions to telegraph services, fires caused by sparking telegraph lines, and auroras visible worldwide, including in tropical latitudes. Such extreme events are extremely rare, but the Carrington Event is used in planning as the most likely scenario for severe space weather impacts.<\/span><\/p>\n

During solar storms, ISS astronauts shelter from radiation, while at the same time, solar storms trigger auroras across the planet. In November 2025, three Russian cosmonauts on the station were ordered to spend the night in the ISS laboratory module.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

On the night of November 11\u201312, 2025, coronal mass ejections from one of the most energetic sunspot groups of the current solar cycle, AR4274, triggered widespread auroras across the Northern Hemisphere. The same energetic particles that interact with Earth’s magnetosphere to create auroras also arrive, carrying heavy radioactive ions that could be hazardous to astronauts in orbit, unprotected by the planet’s natural shielding.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nNASA astronaut Jonny Kim captured this aurora from the International Space Station on September 3, 2025. NASA\/Jonny Kim<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

However, the ISS has its own protective measures. Only Russian crew members Oleg Platonov, Sergey Ryzhikov, and Alexey Zubritsky were asked to spend the night elsewhere. The USOS crew slept in their cabins, while the Roscosmos cosmonauts camped in the laboratory as a preventative measure due to the solar storm, said NASA spokesperson Sandra Jones. The ISS crew also received a list of other locations on board the ISS to avoid during the solar storm.<\/span><\/p>\n

Space weather can also impact satellite performance. A new study has found that, given the vast number of satellites currently orbiting Earth, the first collision will occur in less than three days, potentially triggering a dangerous chain reaction of collisions that could quickly render the space around the planet unusable.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Researchers in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Regina in Canada call this expected time-to-impact value the “Impact Clock” and calculated it by running a model of all known objects in space and determining the average collision rate for different orbital regions in the absence of evasive maneuvers.<\/span><\/p>\n

They found that in regions of low-Earth orbit (LEO) at altitudes of approximately 300 miles (500 kilometers), where most mega-constellation satellites like SpaceX’s Starlink reside, a collision could occur in as little as 2.8 days. For comparison, the team ran identical simulations using satellite and space debris data from 2018. At that time, the first collision would have taken 128 days.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nMore than 46,000 pieces of space debris larger than 4 inches wide have accumulated in Earth’s orbit, according to ESA.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The idea that orbiting satellites could suddenly lose their ability to avoid collisions isn’t science fiction. Every time the Sun ejects a coronal mass ejection (CME)\u2014a burst of magnetized plasma\u2014at Earth, the planet’s tenuous upper atmosphere thickens. Satellites in low Earth orbit experience greater drag and slow down, meaning their trajectories become unpredictable.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, in 2003, after the Halloween Storm\u2014one of the most intense space weather events in the past three decades\u2014satellite operators lost track of their spacecraft for several days. At the time, several hundred active satellites were orbiting the planet, and no collision occurred. And the Halloween Storm was only a small fraction of what the Sun is capable of. A more powerful solar storm, perhaps as powerful as the Carrington Event of 1859\u2014the most intense solar storm recorded in recorded history\u2014would have taken a week or more to fully subside.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the onset of a solar storm, the atmosphere’s density increases sharply, and objects begin to be pulled downward. Before everything begins to return to normal, uncertainties of several kilometers arise in satellite positions, making it impossible to estimate the objects’ future locations, making it impossible to predict collisions and conduct evasive maneuvers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Crash Clock data show that in 2018, near-Earth space would likely have recovered from the most extreme solar storm before the first collision. However, in 2025, an orbital collision would have been virtually inevitable. Such a collision would have created thousands of fragments that would have threatened everything in their path, potentially triggering an unstoppable chain of events. With each subsequent collision, the affected orbital region would have become increasingly dangerous\u2014a nightmare scenario known as Kessler syndrome.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nAn artist’s illustration of space debris orbiting Earth. NASA<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Currently, according to the European Space Agency, there are approximately 13,000 active satellites orbiting the planet, along with more than 43,500 pieces of space debris\u2014failed satellites, rocket stages, and collision debris\u2014large enough to be tracked. These objects orbit the planet at approximately 7.8 kilometers (4.8 miles) per second, and their trajectories frequently intersect. Space forecasting companies, the U.S. Space Command, and other agencies predict satellite trajectories and alert operators to the need for collision avoidance maneuvers in the event of close encounters.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

However, the global space industry is far from completing the deployment of satellite constellations. Analysts predict that tens of thousands of new satellites could be added to low-Earth orbit by 2035. Therefore, the situation could become much more dangerous in the near future.<\/span><\/p>\n

On February 24, 2025, at 2:27 p.m. ET (19:27 GMT), a solar flare with a gain of 2.0 occurred in sunspot AR 4001, located just beyond the northwest limb of the Sun. This resulted in suppression of shortwave radio emission in parts of the Pacific Ocean due to the elevated ultraviolet (UV) radiation that accompanied the flare. During such suppression, there is a complete or near-complete loss of high-frequency (HF) radio signals in sunlit regions.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

X-class flares are the most powerful class of solar flares, rated on a 4-point scale. With each step up the scale, the intensity of a flare increases tenfold. M-class flares are the second most intense, followed by C-class flares, and then B-class flares, which are at the very bottom of the scale. The number following the letter (in this case, 2.0) indicates the intensity of the individual flare.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nMap of locations where radio communications were observed after the February 23, 2025, solar flare. NOAA\/SWPC<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Each radio outage is also classified according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center’s space weather scale, which describes how each level will impact Earth. This particular event was rated as category R3 (Severe), which is in the middle of the scale, below the categories of Extreme (R5) and Severe (R4).<\/span><\/p>\n

Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Marine Environment Center said in a forecast released on February 24, 2025, that there is no concern about a coronal mass ejection (CME) heading toward Earth from the X2.0 flare.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nOn February 23, 2025, the Sun experienced a solar flare with a magnitude of X2.0. NASA\/SDO<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

However, spacecraft observing the Sun have captured spectacular views of the ejecta as it blasted plasma and magnetic field into space.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) eject streams of plasma and the Sun’s magnetic field into space, and if they reach Earth, they can trigger geomagnetic storms. The consequences of such storms for our planet include impacts on power grids and spectacular light displays known as auroras at lower latitudes than usual.<\/span><\/p>\n

For decades, scientists believed there was a limit to how intense Earth’s response to solar storms could be. However, a NASA-led paper published in the journal Nature on July 15, 2026, suggests this upper limit is illusory. If true, it means solar storms could have a far more severe impact on our technology than previously thought.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A new NASA study suggests that the effects of solar storms may have no limit. Observations have shown that electrical currents in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, which can affect satellites, communications, and navigation signals, increase as the solar wind increases, but only up to a certain point.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, a team of researchers led by space physicist Nitin Sivadas of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, argues that this apparent limitation is simply a consequence of uncertainties in solar wind measurements.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nWhen solar wind hits Earth during a solar storm, electric currents in the upper atmosphere increase. In the graph on the left, the blue line shows how the average strength of electric currents in Earth’s upper atmosphere increases with solar wind intensity and then gradually stabilizes, or “saturates,” when measured about a million miles from Earth. (Both values \u200b\u200bare presented in millivolts per meter.) In the graph on the right, a new analysis based on solar wind measurements taken closer to Earth shows that the average strength of electric currents (pink line) continues to increase with increasing solar wind intensity, with no upper limit. NASA\/Nitin Sivadas<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The problem is that most solar wind measurements are made by spacecraft located millions of miles closer to the Sun than Earth. However, according to Sivadas, statistically, the solar wind that ultimately reaches Earth’s magnetic field is likely weaker. This creates the impression that the strong solar wind doesn’t generate equally strong currents, when in fact, the weaker solar wind is responsible for the solar wind’s currents.<\/span><\/p>\n

A team of researchers analyzed data from more than a million solar wind measurements obtained by NASA spacecraft much closer to Earth, such as MMS and THEMIS. Unlike measurements taken at greater distances, these data showed a direct relationship between solar wind strength and currents, suggesting the absence of an upper limit.<\/span><\/p>\n

The findings challenge long-held beliefs, and further observations of strong solar winds will help determine whether Earth’s response truly has an upper limit.<\/span><\/p>\n

A new NASA study shows that solar activity has increased significantly since 2008. Solar activity is known to fluctuate on an 11-year cycle, but longer-term variations also exist, sometimes lasting decades. For example, solar activity levels declined steadily from the 1980s until 2008, when solar activity was at its lowest on record. At that point, scientists expected the Sun to enter a period of historically low activity.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But then the Sun reversed course and became increasingly active, as shown in a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The researchers argue that this trend could lead to an increase in space weather events such as solar storms, flares, and coronal mass ejections.<\/span><\/p>\n

“All the signs pointed to the Sun entering a prolonged period of low activity,” said Jamie Jasinski of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, lead author of the new study. “So it was surprising to see this trend reversed. The Sun is gradually awakening.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The first recorded observations of solar activity date back to the early 1600s, when astronomers including Galileo counted sunspots and documented their changes. Sunspots are cooler, darker regions on the Sun’s surface, formed by the concentration of magnetic field lines. Sunspot-affected areas are often associated with higher solar activity, such as solar flares, which are intense bursts of radiation, and coronal mass ejections, which are huge bubbles of plasma erupting from the Sun’s surface and spreading throughout the solar system.<\/span><\/p>\n

NASA scientists monitor these space weather events because they can impact spacecraft, astronaut safety, radio communications, GPS, and even power grids on Earth. Space weather forecasts are crucial to the operation of spacecraft and astronauts during NASA’s Artemis mission, as understanding the space environment is vital to reducing astronauts’ exposure to space radiation.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nOn September 9, 2025, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of the Sun. NASA\/GSFC\/Solar Dynamics Observatory<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Solar activity influences the magnetic fields of planets throughout the solar system. As the solar wind\u2014a stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun\u2014and other solar activity intensify, the Sun’s influence expands and contracts magnetospheres, which serve as protective bubbles for planets with magnetic cores and magnetic fields, including Earth. These protective bubbles are important for protecting planets from plasma streams emanating from the Sun in the solar wind.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over centuries of solar activity study, the quietest periods occurred during the seventy-year period from 1645 to 1715 and the four-decade period from 1790 to 1830. “We don’t really know why the Sun experienced the 40-year minimum that began in 1790,” Jasinski said. “Longer-term trends are much less predictable, and we don’t yet fully understand them.”<\/span><\/p>\n

In the two and a half decades leading up to 2008, sunspot numbers and solar wind had declined so much that researchers expected the 2008 “deep solar minimum” to mark the beginning of a new period of historically low activity in the Sun’s recent history.<\/span><\/p>\n

“But then the solar wind’s downward trend stopped, and since then the plasma and magnetic field parameters have been steadily increasing,” said Jasinski, who led the analysis of heliospheric data publicly available on the OMNIWeb Plus platform, run by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.<\/span><\/p>\n

The data Jasinski and his colleagues used for their study came from a wide range of NASA missions. Two primary sources\u2014Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) and the Wind mission\u2014were launched in the 1990s and provide data on solar activity, such as plasma and energetic particles moving from the Sun to Earth. These spacecraft are part of a group of NASA’s Heliophysics Division missions designed to study the Sun’s influence on space, Earth, and other planets.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/i> Comment on Facebook* The owner of the Meta company is recognized as extremist in Russia and is banned.<\/span><\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The effects of solar storms may be limitless. Observations have shown that electrical currents in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, which can affect satellites, communications, and navigation signals, increase as the solar wind intensifies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[546,543,40],"tags":[1013,1012,789,288,812,685,1014],"class_list":{"0":"post-2279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-earthsorbit","8":"category-solar-system","9":"category-kosmos","10":"tag-aircraft","11":"tag-communications","12":"tag-magnetic-storms","13":"tag-radiation","14":"tag-satellites","15":"tag-solar-storms","16":"tag-space-debris"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2279"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2283,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2279\/revisions\/2283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}