LettersHong Kong Observatory promotes awareness of space weather through various channels

The Observatory provides the latest information on space weather to special users, such as the aviation and energy sectors

A revamped space weather webpage will soon be launched to educate the general public

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Solar flares seen as the sun emerges from a total eclipse by the moon in August 2017. Photo: AP

Published: 7:40am, 20 Mar 2019Updated: 7:40am, 20 Mar 2019

I refer to the letter from Cheng Ding and Simon Wang “Why Hong Kong should not take its eyes off the sun” (March 2) regarding space weather. We are grateful that your readers paid attention to the potential impacts of severe space weather events.

Unlike atmospheric weather that affects our daily life on a local scale, space weather often refers to the changing electromagnetic conditions in near-Earth space, caused mainly by the sun, the impacts of which are mostly on a global or regional scale, in particular high latitude areas. Despite a relatively low risk for Hong Kong being directly affected by adverse space weather due to its low latitude, the Hong Kong Observatory is always on the alert and regularly monitors space weather.

We provide the latest information on space weather to special users, in particular, the aviation community when impacts to flight operations are expected. Moreover, the Observatory has close partnerships with the energy sector to enhance the resilience of energy infrastructure to various natural hazards, including the potential influence of space weather events to the power grids in Hong Kong. So far, there has been no strong evidence showing that space weather events have caused power outages in Hong Kong.

This July 2012 image taken from video provided by Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows ribbons of plasma and magnetic lines bursting from the sun. Photo: AP/Solar Dynamics Observatory/Nasa

The Observatory also spares no effort in promoting education on space weather to the public. We first launched a space weather webpage in 2004 to heighten public interest in and awareness of this phenomenon. We further enriched the webpage in 2010, specifically relaying the latest space weather alerts from the US and particularly promoting it to government departments and utilities to prompt relevant parties to take appropriate and timely precautions, as necessary, before the solar cycle of about 11 years reaching the forecast maximum around 2012-14.