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by Kristin Suga Heres

On November 11 at 9:18 p.m., my phone erupted with the dings of incoming text messages advising me to go outside and “look north.” Those texts were soon followed by photos of the brilliant night sky above my small Massachusetts town. The northern lights were back! I’d missed them back in October 2024, when New England was abuzz with the rare appearance of the aurora in our corner of the world. Unfortunately, I was about to miss it again, unable to find a view unobstructed by trees or light pollution.

It struck me as odd that these (missed) viewing opportunities appeared to be occurring with increasing frequency in my area. What was once rare now seemed to be a recurring phenomenon. But why?

It turns out that these events are caused by active cycles of solar activity. The auroras visible on November 11 were sparked by the sun’s release of an intense X5.1-class solar flare – the strongest one of the year to date. While the flare and coronal mass ejections that followed had no impact in my town (except to delight the inhabitants lucky enough to witness the resulting show), Europe and Africa were left to deal with widespread disruptions of high frequency radio communications. See https://www.space.com/astronomy/sun/sun-unleashes-strongest-solar-flare-of-2025-sparking-radio-blackouts-across-africa-and-europe

This is not the first time that extreme space weather has had an impact here on Earth. Back in 1859, the “Carrington Event”, an incredibly intense geomagnetic storm, caused major telecommunications disruptions by causing sparking and fires at telegraph stations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event Other consequential impacts from space weather have occurred in the years since then. Such events can have widespread impacts on infrastructure, satellites, communication networks and more. The potential effects of space weather reach beyond risks to electrical grids and other technologies. According to the European Space Agency, space weather poses a threat to the integrity of pipelines. Specifically, geomagnetic disturbances can corrupt cathodic protection survey data and reduce the useful life of pipelines. https://swe.ssa.esa.int/TECEES/sda/pipelinesws/index.html#:~:text=SDA%20objective,layers%20of%20special%20isolating%20coating.

In a world dependent upon electrical power, communication networks, and critical pipelines—all of which can be affected by solar activity—the potential impact of disruptions is significant and can have a ripple effect on commerce and the orderly functioning of society more generally. In 2013, Lloyd’s, together with AER (Atmospheric and Environmental Research) produced a report that discussed the impact that an event like the Carrington Event would have if it had occurred in modern times. https://assets.lloyds.com/assets/pdf-solar-storm-risk-to-the-north-american-electric-grid/1/pdf-Solar-Storm-Risk-to-the-North-American-Electric-Grid.pdf

The report’s conclusions are sobering:

“The total U.S. population at risk of extended power outage from a Carrington-level storm is between 20-40 million, with durations of 16 days to 1-2 years. The duration of outages will depend largely on the availability of spare replacement transformers. If new transformers need to be ordered, the lead-time is likely to be a minimum of five months. The total economic cost for such a scenario is estimated at $0.6-2.6 trillion USD.”

The report also predicted that such a disruption would have major implications for the insurance industry.

Given the wide range of risks to various interests around the world posed by space weather and solar storms, there are lots of different needs for the insurance industry to address, and the insurance industry is taking notice—and action. For instance, Lloyd’s is educating its policyholders on the risks posed by extreme space weather and designing insurance products to meet their evolving needs. https://www.lloyds.com/insights/futureset/futureset-insights/systemic-risk-scenarios/extreme-space-weather/insurance-industry-impact

While space weather can put on a show that delights multitudes, it also presents myriad risks to our technology-dependent existences. The insurance industry is right to keep a close eye on the skies.

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The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the firm or its clients. This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal advice.