Amongst the most dangerous threats to Britain today is one we barely discuss, and cannot see. It doesn’t wear a uniform or move through diplomatic backchannels. It arrives from the Sun, travels at the speed of light, and has the potential to shut down modern life in an instant.
It is called space weather.
To many, this may sound esoteric, more the stuff of science fiction than national policy. But the risk is well understood by physicists and engineers. Solar storms are real, measurable, and recurring. They are natural phenomena that can, and have, interfered with our planet’s magnetic field in ways that disable critical infrastructure.
What makes this especially concerning today is not that the storms have changed, but that we have. Our society is now so technologically enmeshed, so dependent on real-time digital networks and space-based systems, that a major solar event could disable everything from the electricity grid to GPS, mobile communications, air traffic control, and even our ability to access clean water. This is not a theoretical hazard for some distant future. It is a foreseeable event with immediate, cascading consequences.
We have been lucky so far. The last major solar storm to strike Earth occurred in 1859. Known as the Carrington Event, it disrupted the Victorian telegraph network and caused auroras as far south as the Caribbean. In today’s interconnected world, an event of that scale could have devastating consequences. A 2012 solar storm, Carrington-class in size, missed Earth by just a few days. NASA estimated that a direct hit could have caused more than $2.6 trillion in global economic damage.
The problem is not just the event itself, but how utterly dependent we have become on fragile systems. The Sun has always erupted. However, only recently have our societies built their core functions, from banking and transport to health and defence, on architectures that are exquisitely vulnerable to space weather. The resilience we once had in analogue systems has been replaced by the convenience of real-time, digital interconnection. This is not just a technical shift; it is a profound change in the nature of risk.
In policy terms, this places space weather at the intersection of civil contingency planning, national security, and long-term economic resilience. It is not only a scientific issue, or a matter for engineers and astronomers. It is a test of strategic foresight.
The British government has taken some encouraging steps. A Severe Space Weather Preparedness Strategy, published in 2021, laid useful groundwork for future planning. But as with so many strategic documents, the gap between diagnosis and delivery remains wide.
There are four areas where action is now overdue.
First, resilience must be hardwired into regulation. At present, providers of critical national infrastructure, including energy, telecoms, and transport, are encouraged to prepare for solar risk. However, voluntary compliance is not enough. Just as we mandate fire safety and flood resilience, so too should we mandate space weather preparedness through Ofgem, Ofcom, and the relevant oversight bodies.
Second, we need to harden our defence capabilities. From satellite-reliant navigation systems in Royal Navy frigates to encrypted space-based communications in our F-35s, the British Armed Forces are dependent on space. This dependence creates an obvious vulnerability in contested or degraded environments. We must invest in sovereign alternatives, electromagnetic resilience, and training that reflects the reality of compromised skies. This is not merely a question of defensive capability: it is about national autonomy.
Third, local and regional resilience must be updated for a digital age. Our Local Resilience Forums did commendable work during the pandemic and have robust plans for floods and other natural hazards. Yet few currently model scenarios involving solar storms or electromagnetic disturbance. They must be equipped with data, planning tools and authority to treat space weather as a live planning priority.
Fourth, Britain should lead on international coordination. Space weather is a global phenomenon. Its impacts are not limited by borders, nor can they be contained by national response alone. We should use our standing in NATO, the G7 and the UN to promote shared early-warning systems, interoperable contingency protocols, and joint investment in space weather monitoring infrastructure.
There is, perhaps, a broader lesson here too. Modern societies often fall into the trap of over-optimising for efficiency and under-investing in resilience. We have come to assume that the systems we rely on – electricity, broadband, logistics – will always work. They are human-made constructs. And they can be taken offline.
Space weather reminds us that the next major national emergency may not take the form of a hostile state or a visible disaster. It may be a silent, celestial event; a cosmic flicker with terrestrial consequences.
The technology we now depend on is extraordinary. But it is not invincible. It is time we started planning as if we understood that.
The Sun could take Britain offline – and we’re not ready
