Open AccessSystemic Failure on a Grand Scale: The 14 August 2003 North American Blackout
Author(s) -
Kappenman John G.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
space weather
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.254
H-Index - 56
ISSN - 1542-7390
DOI - 10.1029/2003sw000027
Subject(s) - blackout , space (punctuation) , aeronautics , meteorology , history , computer security , computer science , geography , engineering , electric power system , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics , operating system
Now that an international investigative team has reported its findings from the events preceding the 14 August 2003 blackout in North America, definitive answers about “why and how” the large system failed can be used to understand how the network's operations rapidly spiraled out of control that day. Space weather effects have been ruled out as a cause of this blackout, but the small, multipoint failures that triggered it could easily have been caused by space weather.