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esearchers at the Bandung Institute of Technology’s (ITB) Bosscha Observatory have been intensively monitoring initial solar storms that are expected to peak between September 2012 and early 2013.

Head of the observatory, Hakim Luthfi Malasan, said that the NASA observation station had recorded solar flares on Dec. 25–26, 2011.

Although there had not been confirmation that the flares were initial solar storms, caution was needed for early warnings, especially because the exact occurrence of the storms could not be predicted, said Hakim.

“Predicting when exactly the storms come is as difficult as predicting when a tectonic earthquake or hurricane occurs,” he told The Jakarta Post in Bandung on Thursday.

He said that the biggest concern with solar storms was explosive burst of solar flares that took place from up to 3 million kilometers from the sun.

Although the earth was located 150 million kilometers from the sun, he added, the flares could create high energy particles that could reach distances of up to millions of kilometers through electromagnetic waves in either hours or even minutes.

When these particles reach the ionosphere layer, which is only between 3–5 kilometers above the earth, they can trigger sudden ionospheric disturbances that can create chaos for everyday life on earth, which is very dependent on technology.

“The ionosphere reaction can lead to disturbances in communication, navigation and electromagnetic signals. Cell phone signals can just disappear suddenly, as can radio and TV broadcasts and many other technological modes of communication,” Hakim said.

The most dangerous interruption caused by solar storm particle reflections are the damage they cause to tens of thousands of satellites that are located between 800 and 1,000 kilometers above the surface of the earth, he said.

High energy particles from a solar storm in 1998 were reported to have caused magnetic field disturbances that in turn caused blackouts in Alaska and New Jersey, the US.

Another report said that the US UARSS satellite fell down in South California recently because of solar winds.

“A solar wind could cause such a free fall. But what about solar storms? Maybe they can cause more damage,” he said.

He suggested the government take mitigation measures to prepare the community to experience disturbances in communications, telecommunications, navigation radar systems and others due to solar storms.

Such measures, he said, were necessary although geographically Indonesia was located on the equator, which has tended to be less affected.

“High energy particles tend to gather over the earth’s highest magnetic lines, which are the north and south poles,” he said.