OTTAWA -- They looked at the doctor of physics like she was a witch. It was Ottawa in the early '70s. Here was a highly-educated Czechoslovakian immigrant -- a petite, assertive young mother with an Eastern European accent -- telling government officials she wanted to predict the future by gazing into the sun. Her higher-ups were skeptical but Aja Hruska was onto something. She would prove that by foreseeing one of modern history's worst geomagnetic storms, a solar ejection that knocked out power grids across Quebec and the northeast United States in 1989. An unfunded solo project would eventually turn into what's now Space Weather Canada, a section of Natural Resources Canada tasked with monitoring solar activity that can affect major infrastructure, radio signals, GPS and more. Now 20 years into her retirement -- though plugged-in as ever -- Hruska is sharing her story and explaining why we should pay close attention to space weather today.
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