JAKARTA – One researcher from the United States said that the internet apocalypse could happen. The cause of the internet apocalypse is a solar storm on a massive scale which is said to be able to affect the global internet network so that it can die in a few months.
The information was conveyed by Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi from one of the universities in America. His research is entitled "Solar Supestorms: Planning for an Internet Apocalypse". Jyothi is an assistant professor at the University of California.
He said that the internet infrastructure is currently not ready to face the possibility of a solar storm on a massive scale. Because the sun often sends magnetically charged particles to Earth with a certain amount and speed. These magnetically charged particles are known as the solar wind.
Solar wind flows from the corona, a layer of the sun. These particles are often released in large enough quantities according to the bursts and explosions experienced by the sun. For information, solar wind is a particle containing plasma consisting of a mixture of protons and electrons (magnetic particles) with a number of elements that are even heavier.
Indeed, the outer layer of the Earth can still ward off magnetic particles that flow at normal speeds. The solar wind has the potential to become an even bigger solar storm. This is what causes the Earth's geomagnetic disturbance so that it can affect the world's internet network infrastructure.
Even so, the most affected is the underwater cable internet network infrastructure which will be more severely affected by a large-scale solar storm. Jyothi argues that large-scale solar storms could result in an “internet apocalypse”, especially internet networks that use submarine cables that connect to various countries and continents.
Because the underwater internet cable is equipped with a repeater that has a distance of 30 to 90 miles or 50 to 150 kilometers. The repeater is said to be vulnerable and at risk of being affected by geomagnetic currents that occur during extreme solar storms.
Jyothi said in his research that if there was an undersea cable repeater that was affected, it would most likely cause the internet network to be cut off. However, the network connection that is channeled via fiber optic cable is not so affected by the current.
That means if the internet network across countries and continents connected via submarine cables can be cut off and an internet apocalypse can occur. A number of countries in high latitudes such as the United States and Britain are at risk of being affected by geomagnetic currents early if extreme solar storms occur. Meanwhile, repairing submarine cables affected by geomagnetic currents takes a long time.
It is said that the disconnection of the internet connection will also have an impact on economic conditions. The reason is that millions of people are predicted to lose their livelihoods due to the internet apocalypse caused by extreme solar storms.
"The economic impact of a day's Internet interruption in the US is estimated at more than 7 billion US dollars (approximately Rp. 99,720 trillion)," said Jyothi in his research.
“What if the network remains out of service for days or even months?” he said, quoted from LiveScience.
Therefore, Jyothi emphasized that network operators should also pay attention to the impact of extreme solar storms and it could be a consideration for improving internet network infrastructure in order to reduce the impact of solar storms on the submarine cable internet network.
Jyothi predicts extreme solar storms will have a direct impact on Earth at around 1.6 percent to 12 percent per decade. History proves that extreme solar storms occurred in 1859 (Carrington event) and 1921 which caused geomagnetic disturbances so severe that they burned telegraph cables.
In addition, the phenomenon due to solar storms also causes aurora, which is usually seen in the polar regions, to be seen in countries near the equator, one of which is Colombia. While a small-scale solar storm had occurred in 1989, resulting in a power outage in Quebec, Canada for 9 hours.
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