Space Hazards

Most natural hazards originate from natural events within the Earth, and are more or less measurable and predictable. Space hazards, on the other hand, are a relatively new concept amongst the general population, but that does not mean they are a less threatening hazard. Space hazards come from space weather, which is defined by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as:

“Space weather includes any and all conditions and events on the sun, in the solar wind, in near-Earth space and in our upper atmosphere that can affect space-borne and ground-based technological systems and through these, human life and endeavor.”

Some of the more common forms of space hazard include solar flares, coronal mass ejections and energetic particles. These can lead to electricity interruptions, radio/telecommunications (especially high frequency communications), and GPS problems, and GPS usage (largely affecting air traffic).

While large impact events are spaced out in the decades, recent events such as the 1989 coronal mass ejection and the more recent 2003 “Halloween storms” impacted electricity provision from a few hours up to a few days in Canada and Sweden respectively. The impacts will increase with the increased dependence on electromagnetic usage and electricity. Stoppage of electricity will bring on an even wider range of impact of cascading risks. Health care systems are potentially at the risk themselves or may be required to support health care normal functioning in the wider community.

Issues around cascading risks are complex, can cause critical infrastructure and secondary emergencies, and are mostly associated with functional dependencies, such as in complex networks. Cascading risks often infer that there are vulnerabilities in infrastructure, and are rooted in society, policies and management.

With transitions towards an all-hazard approach, it may be useful for regional partnerships that can strengthen regional resilience against space hazards in order to minimize potential cascading risks when such an event occurs. South Korea and Japan, for example have well established space observatories and mature technology that study and systems to manage such events. It is also beneficial for students to be educated on such space hazards on top of the other more common meteorological, geophysical and hydrological hazards in order to raise overall awareness.