This article will be published in the August 2024 issue of International Institute of Loss Adjusters (IILA)’s The International Monitor.
This July 9, 2024 update was written with the invaluable follow up research and assistance of Mariah Patuel, one of our summer interns. It represents his views and not those of the firm or any of its clients.
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UPDATES REGARDING COVERAGE IMPLICATIONS ARISING FROM SOLAR EVENTS
So, what has happened in Solar Storms in the last twelve years since my previously published Article[1] in 2012 on solar events and insurance coverage? Too much to recite here!
It surprises no one that our Sun has a huge effect on our weather, setting aside the human made issues of global warming.
“There is no bad weather, just bad preparation,” according to Jake Bleacher, Chief Scientist, NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. If you are a business, homeowner, or insurer, it makes sense to read the insurance policy you purchase or issue to make sure there are no clauses that might affect coverage for a Sun event in a way that you would not anticipate without reading the insurance contract.
As noted by so many, solar activity moves between “high” – solar maximum – and “low” – solar minimum – periods.[2] On September 15, 2020, NASA announced that “Solar Cycle 25” had begun, following the solar minimum in December 2019.[3] Each of these cycles lasts around eleven years, and the beginning of Solar Cycle 25 likely means there will be an increase in the Sun’s activity in the coming years.[4] This Cycle was predicted to peak between January and October 2024.[5] While this was only a prediction, according to NASA, the impacts of a changing solar cycle bear the potential to immensely affect life on Earth – cutting off communication signals, damaging satellites, risking electrical grids, and corroding oil and gas pipelines.[6]
Inevitably, these earthly effects beg the question – what coverage implications may arise from solar events? It seems that, just as NASA believes in the importance of good preparation, so too should insurers and insureds when it comes to their preparation in assessing the potential implications of solar events on insurance coverage.
Solar Storms: Updates from 2012 to Present
Since my original article was published, there have been many solar storms and solar activities tracked by NASA.[7] The first notable solar storm since the article was the “St. Patrick’s Day” Solar Cycle 24 “super geomagnetic storm[8],” which resulted from “two significant eruptions of the sun’s corona” on March 15, 2015. This storm ranked as a “G4” on NOAA’s scale of one to five; storms of this level are common but can lead to widespread issues and directly impact Earth.[9] Then, in September 2017, NASA viewed “intense” solar activity, denoted as an “X8.2-class flare”; the “X” indicates it was one of the most intense flares, and the “8.2” means it was 8.2x as intense as an “X1” flare.[10] In February 2022, as Solar 25 Cycle was becoming more active, another powerful solar storm occurred, destroying forty SpaceX satellites in orbit and costing the company around $100 million. Scientists stated that, despite this immense damage, there are likely much stronger and more intense solar storms ahead.[11] In May 2024, a huge solar storm – classified as a G5 – impacted Earth, keeping “power grid operations … busy and … working to keep proper, regulated current flowing without disruption.” Additionally, GPS systems and satellite operations strained to maintain function from the “severe-extreme geomagnetic storm.”[12]
Following the clear importance of good preparation, and as a result of these storms and those predicted to follow, NASA and other space companies continue to develop technology and research, hoping to better understand the impacts of such solar events. It seems to follow that insurers and insureds may also want to follow good preparation in assessing potential coverage implications as a result of solar storms because, according to NASA, “there is no bad weather, just bad preparation.”
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[1] Costantino P. Suriano & Marc Haas, “The Calm Before the Solar Storm: Coverage Implications Arising from Solar Events,” Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg’s Intellectual Property Report (January 30, 2012).
[2] SpaceWeather Live (2024), available at https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/solar-activity/solar-cycle/historical-solar-cycles.html.
[3][3] Nasa News & Events, Solar Cycle 25 Is Here, (Sept. 2020), available at https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/solar-cycle-25-is-here-nasa-noaa-scientists-explain-what-that-means/.
[4] BBC NewsRound, Solar Cycle 25: The Sun has started a new solar weather cycle, (Sept. 2020), available at https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/54174542.
[5] National Weather Service, NOAA Forecasts Quicker, Stronger Peak of Solar Activity, (Oct. 2023), available at https://www.weather.gov/news/102523-solar-cycle-25-update.
[6] Geoff Brumfiel & Willem Marx, NPR, The huge solar storm is keeping power grid and satellite operators on edge, (May 2024), available at https://www.npr.org/2024/05/10/1250515730/solar-storm-geomagnetic-g4.
[7] Nasa News & Events, How NASA Tracked the Most Intense Solar Storm in Decades, (May 2024), available at https://www.npr.org/2024/05/10/1250515730/solar-storm-geomagnetic-g4.
[8] Wu, CC., Liou, K., Lepping, R.P. et al. The first super geomagnetic storm of solar cycle 24: “The St. Patrick’s day event (17 March 2015),” Earth Planet Sp 68, 151 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-016-0525-y.
[9] “Severe solar storm may disrupt power, satellites (Update),” PhysOrg (2015).
[10] Jessica Evans, Nasa News & Events, Sun Erupts With Significant Flare, (Sept. 2017), available at https://www.nasa.gov/solar-system/sun-erupts-with-significant-flare/.
[11] “Solar Storm Destroys 40 New SpaceX Satellites in Orbit,” New York Times (2022), available at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/09/science/spacex-satellites-storm.html.
[12] Brumfiel, supra note 6.