(no subject)

[arethinn]

"The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years, we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity," says Richard Fisher, head of NASA's Heliophysics Division. ... [The] economic impact could be a "space weather Katrina," according to a 2008 report... Fisher told the Telegraph that precautions could include, for example, creating power-grid backup systems so that if transformers or giant load-balancing capacitors are fried by a solar outburst, Plan B could go into effect.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/16/solar_storms/