The US government has long come up with plans on how to prepare for and face known natural disasters like cyclones, earthquakes, wild forest fires and droughts.
Just recently, however, the White House released documents on how the nation plans to deal with a lesser known but equally threatening natural occurrence: solar storms.
The American government came out this week with the very first National Space Weather Strategy and Action Plan, which are two key documents on how to address a cosmic disaster.
The documents draw up a roadmap and outline goals and strategies that will better prepare the US and even the world in case a massive solar storm hits Earth.
According to Gizmodo, the plan focuses on coordinating efforts on improved space weather forecasting, infrastructure preparation and education.
One key component of the White House's action plan against a cosmic disaster is determining the upper size limit of solar storms, and the actual risk these superflares pose.
Up until now, there is still uncertainty in the scientific community on how strong these solar storms can be. To date, the largest solar storm on record took place in 1859 known as the Carrington event, which caused global telegraph interruptions.
The White House Action Plan also tasked the Department of Energy to assess how vulnerable American infrastructure is to solar storms. At the same time, the agency was also instructed to develop a grid monitoring system that would "display the status of power generation, transmission, and distribution systems during geomagnetic storms" in real time.
Likewise, the American government sought in its action plan better forecasting of solar storms, to be able to give agencies more lead-time before a cosmic disaster strikes.
The US also proposed global cooperation to prepare for solar storms, particularly through international meetings to tackle the matter, and through sharing of data about the sun's activities.
Why exactly should the US and the rest of the world prepare for a solar storm? Such a solar event, especially a large coronal mass ejection, can cause damage to electricity and communications infrastructure.
