{"id":928716,"date":"2026-10-11T07:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T07:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/928716\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T07:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T07:00:12","slug":"the-suns-fury-could-spoil-your-next-holiday-scientists-say-aircraft-need-more-protection-from-solar-storms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/928716\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sun&#8217;s fury could spoil your next holiday. Scientists say aircraft need more protection from solar storms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Extreme space weather could force airlines to reroute or even ground flights to avoid exposing passengers and crew to harmful radiation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A new study led by the University of Surrey in the UK has examined how extreme solar particle events can affect aircraft at typical cruising altitudes of 8\u201314km (5\u20139 miles).<\/p>\n<p>Researchers found that radiation rises dramatically during these powerful events, while high-energy particles can also trigger errors in aircraft electronics.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/airplane-in-front-of-sun.jpg\" alt=\"Airplane flying in front of the Sun. Credit: AscentXmedia \/ Getty Images\" class=\"wp-image-194200\"\/>Credit: AscentXmedia \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The problem is greatest on high-latitude and polar routes, where Earth\u2019s magnetic field provides less shielding from incoming particles.<\/p>\n<p>During severe geomagnetic storms, however, the effects can extend much farther south, including over the UK.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"891\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/carrington-event-today.jpg\" alt=\"Image of a solar flare erupting from the surface of the Sun. Credit: NASA\/SDO\" class=\"wp-image-158663\"\/>Image of a solar flare erupting from the surface of the Sun. Credit: NASA\/SDO<\/p>\n<p>Measurements made by the Surrey Space Centre during a major solar storm in November 2025 showed radiation briefly approaching 10 times the normal cruising-altitude levels.<\/p>\n<p>Radiation is not only a concern for human health. High-energy particles can produce \u2018single-event upsets\u2019, errors in onboard electronics that can build up and corrupt critical systems.<\/p>\n<p>After the November storm, Airbus said an incident involving an A320 aircraft showed that \u201cintense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/news\/planes-grounded-solar-radiation-hits-essential-flight-controls\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Around 6,000 aircraft were temporarily grounded<\/a> for software and hardware updates.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the moment, there is no consistent way for the aviation sector to assess and respond to extreme space weather risks,\u201d says Surrey\u2019s Professor Keith Ryden.<\/p>\n<p>The team have proposed an atmospheric radiation scale with clear response thresholds.<\/p>\n<p>Combined with radiation measurements and space-weather forecasts, it could help airlines respond proportionately to future solar storms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Extreme space weather could force airlines to reroute or even ground flights to avoid exposing passengers and crew&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":928717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,66],"class_list":["post-928716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/928717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}