🌟 A century solar storm threatens to send us back to the 19th century

Our daily lives rely on ubiquitous technologies, from smartphones to navigation systems, becoming more indispensable every day. Occurring on average once a century, a large-scale solar event is enough to disrupt, if not destroy, these essential tools.

A British technical report published in 2026 examined the consequences of a major event that would occur approximately once a century. This document, cited by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, explores the effects on terrestrial infrastructures. While the study is based on the case of the United Kingdom, regions at comparable latitudes elsewhere in the world could experience similar disruptions.


Solar flares, powerful explosions in our star's atmosphere, can scramble radio communications. Geomagnetic storms, caused by the arrival of plasma clouds, disrupt the Earth's magnetic field. Finally, energetic particles can reach our environment, creating real risks.

Electrical grids are particularly exposed. During a strong geomagnetic storm, induced currents are created and flow through high-voltage power lines. This overload can lead to regional power outages.

Satellites, essential for GPS or weather forecasts, are also on the front line. An influx of charged particles can damage their electronics and reduce the lifespan of their solar panels. Furthermore, the Earth's atmosphere, heated by solar X-rays, expands slightly. This increases the drag that slows down spacecraft, potentially causing them to descend uncontrollably into the atmosphere until they create debris impacting the ground.

Radio communication systems would be widely affected. Signals used for satellite navigation or long-distance links for aircraft and ships could be degraded or lost for several days. This is not just a hypothesis: during an extreme event in May 2024, American agriculture suffered significant losses due to satellite guidance failures.


Fortunately, solar observation and flare modeling are constantly improving. These advances offer longer lead times to safeguard critical infrastructure, but will it be enough, the day a century event arrives?

How the Sun influences our planet

Solar activity is not constant. Our star goes through cycles of approximately eleven years, marked by phases of calm and intense agitation. During active periods, dark spots appear on its surface, sites of intricate magnetic fields. These fields can twist and reconnect violently, releasing enormous amounts of energy in the form of flares.

These flares sometimes eject clouds of plasma into space, called coronal mass ejections. Traveling at several million kilometers per hour, these clouds can take a few days to reach Earth. When they interact with the magnetic shield surrounding our planet, they compress and distort it, triggering polar auroras but also unwanted electrical currents.

These solar processes are monitored by a fleet of space and ground observatories. Satellites like NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory provide continuous images, allowing the detection of warning signs. This monitoring helps issue alerts a few hours before the arrival of the fastest particles, offering precious reaction time.

Researchers are developing computer models to simulate the propagation of plasma clouds through the Solar System. The goal is to predict the strength and direction of these events more accurately, to better protect our technologies.