Power grids and much of our infrastructure are susceptible to solar storms that have a nearly 10% chance of happening per decade. Economists estimate a severe storm could cost billions, if not trillions, in damage. Solar storms often contain a few major components: solar flares, solar energetic particles and coronal mass ejections. These space weather events could knock out satellites as well.

WSJ explores how scientists and utilities operators spend time preparing and building new models to forecast solar storms to avoid worst-case scenarios.

0:00 Solar storms
1:06 Infrastructure risks
3:50 History of solar storms
5:33 Building defenses

#Space #Sun #WSJ