Solar storm resilience
Greater resilience for critical maritime equipment
A preparedness and technology concept for shielding, redundancy and controlled recovery of critical systems on board — aimed at events that occur rarely but can have severe consequences.
Modern vessels and offshore installations depend on electronic systems for navigation, communication, power, control, drilling, process and safety. Digitalisation improves operations but also makes installations more dependent on power, satellites, data networks and vulnerable electronics.
Severe solar storms can disturb satellites, GNSS, HF radio and electrical infrastructure. Large geomagnetic events can induce currents in long conductors and affect power systems onshore. For maritime and offshore operations, losing navigation, communication or support systems can have serious operational consequences even when the vessel itself is not struck directly.
Most solar storms cause no serious problems for a vessel or a rig. This project addresses events that occur rarely but can have major consequences if several dependent systems fail at once. The aim is not to claim that an installation can be made entirely invulnerable, but to identify which functions must survive, reduce the vulnerability, and establish a realistic plan for safe operation and recovery.
AIDA is examining a layered approach in which protection is matched to how critical the equipment is: mapping critical systems, dependencies and possible common-cause failures; shielding selected panels, control systems, servers and spare parts; correct earthing, cable management, filtering and surge protection; redundant solutions for communication, navigation and emergency power; protected storage of critical components; manual emergency functions and procedures; space weather monitoring; and a plan for controlled shutdown, start-up and verification after an event.
A solution has to work on board. It must account for classification, fire, hazardous areas, maintenance, available space, heat, corrosion and electromagnetic compatibility. A theoretical shielding concept is not sufficient if it introduces new faults or obstructs normal operation.
The most valuable deliverable may be a combination of technology and preparedness: knowing which systems are critical, which spare components must be protected, which functions can be operated manually, and how the installation is to return to controlled operation.