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<H1>Solar threat to Hi-Tech</H1>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>NASA reports on how increasing Solar activity may threaten
our high-tech systems.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>They say:<BR>Earth and space are about to come into contact
in a way that's new to human history. To make preparations, authorities in
Washington DC are holding a meeting: The Space Weather Enterprise Forum at the
National Press Club on June 8th.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>Richard Fisher, head of NASA's Heliophysics Division,
explains what it's all about:</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>"The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next
few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity. At <STRONG>the
same time, our technological society has developed an unprecedented sensitivity
to solar storms</STRONG>. The intersection of these two issues is what we're
getting together to discuss."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>The National Academy of Sciences framed the problem two
years ago in a landmark report entitled "Severe Space Weather Events—Societal
and Economic Impacts." It noted how people of the 21st-century rely on high-tech
systems for the basics of daily life. <STRONG>Smart power grids, GPS navigation,
air travel, financial services and emergency radio communications can all be
knocked out by intense solar activity</STRONG>. A century-class solar storm, the
Academy warned, could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane
Katrina.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Much of the damage can be mitigated if managers
know a storm is coming. Putting satellites in 'safe mode' and disconnecting
transformers can protect these assets from damaging electrical
surges</STRONG>.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Preventative action, however, requires accurate
forecasting - a job that has been assigned to NOAA</STRONG>.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>Bogdan sees the collaboration between NASA and NOAA as key.
"NASA's fleet of heliophysics research spacecraft provides us with
up-to-the-minute information about what's happening on the sun. They are an
important complement to our own GOES and POES satellites, which focus more on
the near-Earth environment."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>Read the full NASA story at<BR></FONT><A
href="http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/04jun_swef/"
target=_blank><FONT
face=Tahoma>http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/04jun_swef/</FONT></A></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>National Space Weather Program (NSWP)<BR></FONT><A
href="http://www.nswp.gov/" target=_blank><FONT
face=Tahoma>http://www.nswp.gov/</FONT></A></P>
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