About 140 people were involved in person with even more joining online for NEMA’s first exercise simulating an emergency response to a solar storm.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
In the depths of the Beehive’s bunker, the National Emergency Management Agency has run its first exercise simulating an emergency response to a solar storm.
Solar storms do not pose a physical threat to human health, but with society depending more and more on technology, an otherwise harmless burst of radiation from the sun could easily disrupt business as usual, taking out the power grids and GPS.
On Thursday afternoon, emergency management staff and many from other agencies were well into running a made-up scenario designed to test their ability to respond to the real thing.
Civil Defence Emergency Management director John Price said there were about 140 people involved in-person, and more online.
He explained there had been a growing awareness globally in recent years of the effects of solar activity on technology, particularly power grids and navigation systems, which had seen a surge in emergency preparedness.
John Price says it was important to know where planes could land during a solar storm as it could affect their navigation equipment.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Late last year, NEMA released an official plan for responding to space weather, and this was the first simulated exercise run for a solar storm scenario.
On one wall of the bunker, Flight Tracker showed every plane in the air around the country. Price explained the storm wouldn’t physically harm the planes, but it was necessary to know where they might be able to land them all, as it might affect their navigation equipment.
In an adjacent room, legal and policy staff were packed around tables, tackling issues like whether the current legislation would give the right agencies the right powers to shut things down or move people in an emergency.
Another side of it was communication with the public, as NEMA’s Jessica Williams explained.
“We can’t assume that the public really understands anything about what’s going on. Earthquakes, volcanoes are things that you can see and feel, whereas a space weather event wouldn’t be,” she said.
“So we’re having to start from scratch explaining them through something that’s a bit new, and something that’s honestly, a bit scary.”
She said combating disinformation was a big part of that – particularly around fears of a risk to human health.
Tom Wilson, NEMA’s chief science advisor, said they would get at least 12 hours’ warning before a coronal mass ejection reached Earth.
When it came to the national grid, the country’s long-run transmission lines were vulnerable.
“When we have these coronal mass ejections, what it does is it squeezes the Earth’s magnetic field which induces currents in the ground, and then leads to those long transmission lines getting an induced current within them, which can burn out some of the transformers.”
Tom Wilson says they would get at least 12 hours’ warning before a coronal mass ejection reached Earth.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Transpower, which runs the national grid, told RNZ that to mitigate the risk of damage, it had developed a contingency plan which involved switching off parts of the power system until the event had passed.
That could leave people without power for up to three days, but would be used as a last resort to prevent extensive damage.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Real-life solar storm coincides with practice exercise
On Thursday, with the simulation still running next door, the team had also been dealing with a real life solar event – although on a much smaller scale.
“So this morning, we had a message come through from the Space Weather Prediction Centre, a US-based monitoring centre,” Wilson said. “It’s hitting Earth as we speak now.”
The event was a G3, which National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists estimated would happen about 12 times a year, rather than the G5 scenario being run in the bunker.
While the G3 event was not expected to cause any damage, it was a timely reminder of the importance of this kind of exercise.
NEMA’s preparations began in the bunker, but Price said regular people needed to make a plan too.
That could involve stashing some emergency food, making a plan to get by without power and internet, or perhaps even getting hold of a generator or solar panel to avoid being cut off with the grid.
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