Solar Flares Can Induce of Network Components Failures
Did you have any Network Hardware Failures on the night of August 3 2010? If so, the root bring about may probably have been owing to a photo voltaic storm that immediately hit Earth as noted extensively on the news.
NASA astronomers noted that on August 1, there was a sizable eruption on the solar that ejected positively charged plasma from it’s floor headed immediately towards Earth. These charged particles entered the Earth’s atmosphere a couple of days afterwards and collided with oxygen and nitrogen molecules creating what is identified as cosmic radiation.
Ordinarily, the environment of the Earth does a fantastic task of deflecting cosmic radiation on the upper aspect of the atmosphere. That is why the discussion of electronics failures thanks to photo voltaic flares or cosmic radiation is often limited to satellites in orbit. Satellites are substantially extra possible to be hit with the radiation due to the fact they are better up in the environment.
When solar flares are more substantial than ordinary nonetheless, cosmic radiation can strike the Earth’s floor. Usually, the closer the machines are to the North and South poles, the a lot more susceptible they are to being strike with radiation.
I was functioning for a business in Chicago a several years ago when we experienced two Cisco Supervisor modules on different Catalyst 6500 collection switches die in the similar night. The components was found in two distinctive areas with wholly distinct ability sources. Figuring out the failure fee of this devices, possessing two failures in one particular night time is extremely scarce. Soon after a lengthy investigation by the Cisco technical help staff, it was determined that the failures were being because of to a similar solar flare that hit our web page with cosmic radiation. At the time, I failed to feel their explanation, but seeking back again on it now, it is achievable. In simple fact, Cisco has cosmic radiation documented as 1 of the leads to of components failures. Community machines this sort of as higher close switches are more vulnerable to cosmic radiation when compared to other electronics products because of the delicate electronics required to shift packets at this kind of a substantial level of speed.
So the following time you see news stories for photo voltaic flares heading to Earth, retain a shut eye on any components issues you encounter on your community gear.