Extreme Space Weather - Are We Protected?

Our Sun has unleashed solar storms of epic proportions. These coronal mass ejections (CMEs) travel through space at over 1 million miles per hour, spanning an astonishing 93 million miles within 15 to 18 hours, colliding and distorting the Earth's magnetic field. The impact is felt on Earth as the collision trigger a geomagnetic storm that can disrupt radio communications, satellites, and critical infrastructure. In the chaos of this cosmic event, military personnel engaged in critical operations may find themselves at the mercy of inauspicious forces beyond their control. There is a history of extreme space weather impacts that have resulted in catastrophic events and resulted in the death of soldiers, sailors and airmen. Space weather events including solar flares, radiation storms, and ionospheric storms can all be monitored to determine what impact they will have on the performance of the space-borne and ground-based systems that soldiers utilize in the field, such as GNSS and communications equipment. Advances made in the monitoring, modeling and forecasting of space weather events can therefore support more accurate and proactive decision-making, increasing the safety and likelihood of success of operations. However, there are major improvements in space weather monitoring and modeling that would surely improve combat effectiveness and enhance the protection of our own Department of Homeland Security critical infrastructure against the 1 in 30 years; 1 in 100 years; 1 in 300 years and 1 in 1000 years space weather extreme event. The issue is not if these extreme events will occur, but whether are global military operations and our national critical infrastructure adequately protected from Induced Geo-Electric Fields, Ionizing Radiation, Ionospheric Disturbances, Solar Radio Bursts, and/or Upper Atmospheric Expansion?