(01-August-2011) Warning System Could Protect Power Grid, Satellites from Space Storms RIT scientist shifts Mars research back to Earth

A massive storm rolling in from space this summer knocked out several Global Positioning System satellites, rendering them temporarily useless until they could reboot. The violent weather, in June, had only minor repercussions; however, the fact remains that for a brief period of time our global navigation satellite system failed.

Space storms are a growing concern among scientists who see cracks in the critical infrastructure on Earth—the power grid, GPS navigation and sensitive communication satellites.

“We know that solar storms are real and that they are a threat,” says Roger Dube, professor in the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science at Rochester Institute of Technology. “The question is, how big a threat and when is it going to be really bad? What do we need to do to protect ourselves?”

“My original project was oriented toward the colonization of Mars,” Dube says. “In order to understand what will happen at Mars, we’ve had to step back and look at the impact of these storms on Earth. We’ve come to realize that there is a big problem even here in terms of our potential sensitivity to a storm like this now that our society has become so technologically dependent. I think our overall level of awareness and concern has increased because we’re seeing more data that says this is not that rare an event. (more)http://www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=48456