European Space Agency

Space Weather – Impact on Critical Infrastructure and Services

SSA Space Weather Coordination Centre Inauguration & Media Briefing 3 April 2013 Juha-Pekka Luntama SSA Space Weather Manager Alexi Glover Space Weather Service Coordinator

European Space Agency

Space weather impacts on critical infrastructure

European Space Agency

Solar storms during Halloween 2003

• Halloween storms 19 Oct – 5 Nov 2003 were the most recent major solar events

• Not just a storm, but a series of events 18 X-ray events: M5.0 – X28.0

18 radio blackout events: R1 – R5

5 CMEs with geoimpacts: Kp 6 – 9

5 > 10 MeV proton events

• Continuing disturbances cause • accumulated damage e.g. on solar arrays

• increasing risk of permanent radiation damage

• complications in the satellite recovery

• service outages in satellite dependant ground systems

European Space Agency

Spacecraft impacts during the Halloween storms

Mars Odyssey mission: Safe mode during radiation storm. Memory error and loss of MARIE instrument

ADEOS-2 Spacecraft lost

ACE: EPAM instrument permanently damaged

GOES-9, 10 and 12: High bit error rates (9,10), magnetic torguers disabled (12)

Smart-1 spacecraft solar panels damaged

Multiple anomalies in GEO TV and Pay Radio satellites: Momentum wheels, CPU, service outages, …

Mars Express star trackers blinded by particle radiation

DMSP F16: SSIES sensor lost data twice, microware sounder damaged

European Space Agency

Ground segment impacts during the Halloween storms

Common ENTSO-E – EC Workshop on “Critical Systems Protection”

NOTAM: Polar flight route restrictions due to geomagnetic storm impacts on radio communications

Power blackout in Malmö

Nuclear power plants reduced power due to electromagnetic storm

Failures in GPS based positioning

Widespread HF radio outage over African continent

Transformer damage in South Africa

Survey instrument impacts globally

SatComm and HF outages in Asia and Australia

European Space Agency

Major solar event: July 23, 2012

Credit: NASA/STEREO Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO

STEREO A

European Space Agency

What can we do to mitigate the risks?

• Ensure capability to monitor space weather

We need a operational space weather monitoring

International cooperation for space and ground segments

• Establish distribution of information, warnings and alerts to the users

Right information to right people at the right time

Databases and tools for anomaly analysis and design of future space systems

Coordination of the information to avoid confusion among the users

Tailored services based on specific end user needs

• We need to improve our space weather forecasting skills

• We have to analyse our infrastructure to understand potential impacts

European Space Agency

Would you like to know more? swe.ssa.esa.int www.esa.int