Nasa has built an artificial intelligence model to predict where on Earth an impending solar storm would strike, a new system that scientists said can provide “30 minutes of advance warning”. The AI model analyses Nasa satellite data to raise the alarm on dangerous space weather, said researchers from the American space agency’s Goddard Space Center. The warning may provide just enough time for countries to prevent severe impacts of these storms on power grids and other critical infrastructure, according to the new study published recently in the journal Space Weather. Solar storms are caused when the Sun emits a burst of electrically charged plasma in what is called a coronal mass ejection. These charged particles create so-called geomagnetic storms that may cause blackouts and technological malfunctions of instruments on Earth as they interfere with the protective magnetic field around the planet. While these storms range from mild to extreme, their effects could become increasingly disruptive in a technologically dependent world. For instance, a solar storm in 1989 caused blackouts across Quebec, Canada for 12 hours, plunging millions into the dark and closing schools and businesses. Another popular solar superstorm event known as the Carrington Event sparked fires at early telegraph stations in 1859 that prevented messages from being sent. Scientists warned that the risk of such a devastating solar storm is increasing as we approach the next “solar maximum” – a peak in the Sun’s 11-year activity cycle. To prevent such a devastation, Nasa scientists developed the new AI model to identify links between solar wind measurements from previous Sun missions and geomagnetic disturbances observed at ground stations across Earth. The computer model they developed, called DAGGER, can quickly and accurately predict geomagnetic disturbances worldwide, “30 minutes before they occur,” researchers said. When they tested the model against two geomagnetic storms that happened in August 2011 and March 2015, it was able to “quickly and accurately” forecast the storm’s impacts around the world. The new prediction system is the first to combine swift analysis of AI, with real measurements from space and across Earth to generate frequently updated predictions. Scientists believe the early warning provided by the system can help take action to protect infrastructure from an impending solar storm, such as temporarily taking sensitive systems offline or moving satellites to different orbits. Read More Stunning aurora lights up skies over Australia: ‘Brightest one I’ve ever seen’ How a severe solar storm could leave a lasting impact on our world The world is not yet ready to overcome a once-in-a-century solar superstorm, warn scientists Astronomers find ‘objects that no one has ever seen before’ Saturn’s rings are no more than 400 million years old – study Strange sounds recorded by balloons in stratosphere leave scientists puzzled

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Google has warned billions of WhatsApp users that backup storage for old chats, photos and videos will soon no longer be free. Messages and media on the hugely popular messaging app will now count towards a user’s Google Account cloud storage limit if they use an Android device. Personal Google Accounts come with 15GB of free storage, however that is shared across Google Drive, Gmail and Google Photos. This means any additional photos, videos and audio files from WhatsApp may force many users to pay for additional storage space. “As an important heads up, WhatsApp backups on Android will soon start counting toward your Google Account cloud storage limit, similar to how WhatsApp backups are handled on other mobile platforms,” a Google community manager wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. “WhatsApp backups on Android will continue to work, as long as you have available space within your Google Account storage. If you hit your storage limit, you’ll need to free up space to resume backups by removing items you do not need.” The change will begin rolling out to WhatsApp Beta users next month, before coming to all WhatsApp users on Android in early 2024. Of the roughly 3 billion WhatsApp users around the world, an estimated 73 per cent of them access the app on Android. There are several price options for additional Google storage, with the cheapest monthly plan for 100GB of data starting at $1.99. This would cover all but the most data intensive WhatsApp users. The update comes amid a major overhaul of how Google manages online accounts and data, with all personal accounts that have been inactive for more than two years set to be deleted in December. The move is intended to improve security for active users, though some have noted that it may inadvertently impact people who have set up accounts for young children in order to share memories and milestones, as well as users who are in control of the accounts of deceased relatives. Read More Gmail: Google issues three-week warning to account holders

Elon Musk plans to change the logo of Twitter to an “X” from the bird, marking what would be the latest big change since he bought the social media platform for $44 billion last year

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