Expanding the electric grid requires using SF6, a greenhouse gas.
"Used primarily in high-voltage electrical switchgear in electric #PowerGrids, SF6 is one of the most potent greenhouse gases on Earth. In the 21st century, atmospheric concentrations of SF6 have risen sharply along with global electric power demand, threatening the world's efforts to stabilize the climate."
#SF6: GWP = 24,300, Atmospheric lifetime > 1000 years
Solar storms could cause train accidents, scientists warn
Story by Andrew Griffin, December 11, 2023
“#SpaceWeather – changes in the atmosphere that include blasts of energy from the Sun – can disrupt everything from communications to #PowerGrids. Scientists have repeatedly warned that the Earth faces potentially catastrophic danger from #SolarStorms, which could be powerful enough to bring down much of the #infrastructure on which we depend.
“Now researchers warn that danger could be enough to cause malfunctioning #rail signals, which in turn could lead to #TrainAccidents.
“Researchers modelled how geomagnetically induced currents from solar storms could cause danger, by looking at two routes: the Preston to Lancaster section of the #WestCoastMainLine, and the #GlasgowToEdinburghLine. Those are just two lines that rely heavily on that rail signal, and there are more than 50,000 signalling track circuits in the UK, which control the railway signal with an electric circuit.
“In the new study, they found that space weather would be able to change those circuits. Models suggest that could happen every few decades, the researchers found.
“’Crucially, our research suggests that space weather is able to flip a signal in either direction, turning a red signal green or a green signal red. This is obviously very significant from a safety perspective,' said Cameron Patterson from Lancaster University.
“’By building a computer model of the signalling track circuits using realistic specifications for the various components of the system, we found that space weather events capable of triggering faults in these track circuits are expected in the UK every few decades.'
“Patterson had previously worked on research that suggested solar storms could lead to 'right side' failures, where signals turn from green to red. Those are less dangerous, since trains will stay at a stop.
“But the new research suggests that they can also happen for 'wrong side' failures, that change signals to green. What’s more, they actually require less strength to be flipped, suggesting they could happen with less powerful solar storms.
“‘Our research shows that space weather poses a serious, if relatively rare, risk to the rail signalling system, which could cause delays or even have more critical, safety implications,' said Cameron. 'This natural hazard needs to be taken seriously. By their nature, high-impact, low-frequency events are hard to plan for, but ignoring them is rarely the best way forward.'
“In 1859, the world was hit by what is known as the ‘#CarringtonEvent’, which was powerful enough to knock telegraph signals offline as well as other disruptions. If that happened today, it would cause widespread disruption – including causing widespread problems on both train lines that were examined in the study.
“But there have been more recent, if less powerful, examples of space weather that is powerful enough to hit power grids. In 2003, the Swedish city of Malmo suffered problems from space weather, for instance.
“The work is reported in a new study, 'Wrong Side' Failures Caused by Geomagnetically Induced Currents in Electrified Railway Signalling Systems in the UK’, published in the journal Space Weather.”
#CyberSecurity#Russia#Sandworm#PowerGrids#Ukraine#StateHacking: "Cybersecurity firm Mandiant today revealed that Sandworm, a cybersecurity industry name for Unit 74455 of Russia's GRU spy agency, carried out a third successful power grid attack targeting a Ukrainian electric utility in October of last year, causing a blackout for an unknown number of Ukrainian civilians. In this case, unlike any previous hacker-induced blackouts, Mandiant says the cyberattack coincided with the start of a series of missile strikes targeting Ukrainian critical infrastructure across the country, which included victims in the same city as the utility where Sandworm triggered its power outage. Two days after the blackout, the hackers also used a piece of data-destroying "wiper" malware to erase the contents of computers across the utility's network, perhaps in an attempt to destroy evidence that could be used to analyze their intrusion."
#Cybersecurity#Infrastructure#China#Hacking#PowerGrids: "Today, researchers on the Threat Hunter Team at Broadcom-owned security firm Symantec revealed that a Chinese hacker group with connections to APT41, which Symantec is calling RedFly, breached the computer network of a national power grid in an Asian country—though Symantec has declined to name which country was targeted. The breach began in February of this year and persisted for at least six months as the hackers expanded their foothold throughout the IT network of the country's national electric utility, though it's not clear how close the hackers came to gaining the ability to disrupt power generation or transmission."
Thursday's flare temporarily disrupted radio 📻 communication on #Earth for a couple of hours, with multiple #pilots 🛬 reporting #communication problems.