Opmmur
Time Travel Professor
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The Carrington Event - Biggest Solar Storm In Earth's History
28 August, 2015
MessageToEagle.com - On August 28, 1859, an enormous solar coronal mass ejection hit Earth's magnetosphere and induced one of the largest geomagnetic storms on record. This was the biggest solar flare in Earth's history.
The associated "white light flare" in the solar photosphere was observed and recorded by English astronomers Richard C. Carrington and Richard Hodgson.
Artists conception of London during a Carrington Event level solar flare.
From August 28 to September 2, 1859, numerous sunspots were observed on the Sun. On August 29, southern aurorae were observed as far north as Queensland, Australia.
Soon aurorae were seen around the world, those in the northern hemisphere as far south as the Caribbean; those over the Rocky Mountains in the US were so bright that their glow awoke gold miners, who began preparing breakfast because they thought it was morning.
It was so bright that people in the northeastern US could read a newspaper by the aurora's light.
According to our current statistics, Carrington flares occur once in a half-millennium. The statistics are far from solid, however, and scientists emphasize that we don't understand flares well enough to rule out a repeat in our lifetime.
In 1859, the telegraph network was the sole technology endangered by space weather. The situation is much different now.
If Earth is hit by the same force as the worst recorded solar storm in history, 1859's Carrington Event, it would be devastating. Imagine large cities without power for a week, a month, or a year. What do you think would happen? How could our modern world survive without communication? A solar storm of this magnitude could result in year-long blackouts.
Scientists warn the losses could be $1 to $2 trillion, and the effects could be felt for years.
28 August, 2015
MessageToEagle.com - On August 28, 1859, an enormous solar coronal mass ejection hit Earth's magnetosphere and induced one of the largest geomagnetic storms on record. This was the biggest solar flare in Earth's history.
The associated "white light flare" in the solar photosphere was observed and recorded by English astronomers Richard C. Carrington and Richard Hodgson.
Artists conception of London during a Carrington Event level solar flare.
From August 28 to September 2, 1859, numerous sunspots were observed on the Sun. On August 29, southern aurorae were observed as far north as Queensland, Australia.
Soon aurorae were seen around the world, those in the northern hemisphere as far south as the Caribbean; those over the Rocky Mountains in the US were so bright that their glow awoke gold miners, who began preparing breakfast because they thought it was morning.
It was so bright that people in the northeastern US could read a newspaper by the aurora's light.
According to our current statistics, Carrington flares occur once in a half-millennium. The statistics are far from solid, however, and scientists emphasize that we don't understand flares well enough to rule out a repeat in our lifetime.
In 1859, the telegraph network was the sole technology endangered by space weather. The situation is much different now.
If Earth is hit by the same force as the worst recorded solar storm in history, 1859's Carrington Event, it would be devastating. Imagine large cities without power for a week, a month, or a year. What do you think would happen? How could our modern world survive without communication? A solar storm of this magnitude could result in year-long blackouts.
Scientists warn the losses could be $1 to $2 trillion, and the effects could be felt for years.
