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the united nations braces for stormy

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space weather

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presented by science at nasa

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rewind to the late 1950s

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the soviet union had just launched the

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first artificial satellite sputnik

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the united states caught short was

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scrambling to catch up kick-starting a

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cold war space race that would last for

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decades

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space was up for grabs and it seemed

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like anything could happen

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into this void stepped the united

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nations

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in 1958 the general assembly recognizing

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the common interest of mankind in

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furthering the peaceful use of outer

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space and desiring to avoid the

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extension of national rivalries into

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this new field established the committee

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of the peaceful uses of outer space

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kopios became a forum for development of

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laws and treaties governing

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space-related activities setting the

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stage for international cooperation on

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problems that no one nation could handle

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alone as the years went by kopios

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membership ballooned from 18 to 74

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nations while items such as orbital

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debris near-earth asteroids and global

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navigation were added to the regular

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agenda

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at each meeting members confer about

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these issues

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which present some key challenge or

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peril to the whole planet

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this year a new item is on the agenda

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space weather

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this is a significant development says

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likaguhata corta of nasa headquarters in

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washington dc by adding space weather to

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the regular agenda of the copuos science

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and technology subcommittee the un is

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recognizing solar activity as a concern

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on par with orbital debris and close

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approaching asteroids

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space weather is the outer space

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equivalent of weather on earth

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instead of wind rain and snow however

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space has radiation storms solar wind

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flares and coronal mass ejections

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the source of space weather is the sun

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and although solar storms are launched

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93 million miles from earth they can

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make themselves felt on our planet

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strong solar storms can knock out power

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and disable satellites says guhata corta

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it's a global problem made worse by our

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increasing reliance on sensitive

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electronic technologies

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the potential economic impacts of space

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weather are significant

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for instance modern oil and gas drilling

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frequently involve directional drilling

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to tap deep oil and gas reservoirs

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this drilling technique depends on

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accurate positioning using gps

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drill heads could go awry however if the

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sun interferes with gps reception

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solar energetic particles at the

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magnetic poles can force the rerouting

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of international airline flights

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resulting in delays and increased fuel

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consumption

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currents generated by magnetic storms

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can damage transformers and increase

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corrosion in energy pipelines

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a key problem that the u.n can help

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solve is the gaps in storm coverage

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around our planet

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when a solar storm sweeps past earth

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waves of ionized particles ripple

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through earth's upper atmosphere and the

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whole planet's magnetic field begins to

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shake

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these are global phenomena says

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gujatakorta we need to be able to

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monitor them all around the world

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industrialized countries tend to have an

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abundance of monitoring stations

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developing countries are where the gaps

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are

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with assistance from the un researchers

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may be able to extend sensor networks

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into regions where it was once

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politically impossible space weather

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might play a role in earth's climate too

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for example the maunder minimum a

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70-year period almost devoid of sunspots

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in the late 17th to early 18th century

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coincided with very cold winters in the

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northern hemisphere researchers are

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increasingly convinced that variations

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in solar activity have regional effects

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on climate that pay no attention to

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national boundaries

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from now on space weather will be a

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matter of regular conversation among un

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diplomats and emergency planners

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this is important because while space

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weather is no longer up for grabs it is

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still true almost anything can happen

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for more news about space weather and