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The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) held a briefing on super storms on March 24, 2015. Dr. Harlan Spence, director of the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space at the University of New Hampshire, said that solar storms tend to be rare but can have an enormous, global impacts, including damage to electric power grids, satellites, weather observing systems and GPS . He talked about major space weather events in the past, such as the Carrington storm in 1859 and a storm in 1969 that left much of Quebec in darkness, as well as a recent St. Patrick’s Day storm. Spence said better measurements, better models, a greater understanding of historic space weather events and a trained workforce are needed to advance the ability to predict space storms and design systems that are more resilient against the effects of space weather. You can learn more in this video of the briefing.