Dodging a bullet - solar storm
From
The University of California, Berkeley:
Fierce solar magnetic storm barely missed Earth in 2012
According to University of California, Berkeley, and Chinese researchers, a rapid succession of coronal mass ejections � the most intense eruptions on the sun � sent a pulse of magnetized plasma barreling into space and through Earth�s orbit. Had the eruption come nine days earlier, when the ignition spot on the solar surface was aimed at Earth, it would have hit the planet, potentially wreaking havoc with the electrical grid, disabling satellites and GPS, and disrupting our increasingly electronic lives.
The solar bursts would have enveloped Earth in magnetic fireworks matching the largest magnetic storm ever reported on Earth, the so-called Carrington event of 1859. The dominant mode of communication at that time, the telegraph system, was knocked out across the United States, literally shocking telegraph operators. Meanwhile, the Northern Lights lit up the night sky as far south as Hawaii.
In a paper appearing today (Tuesday, March 18) in the journal Nature Communications, former UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow and research physicist Ying D. Liu, now a professor at China�s State Key Laboratory of Space Weather, UC Berkeley research physicist Janet G. Luhmann and their colleagues report their analysis of the magnetic storm, which was detected by NASA�s STEREO A spacecraft.
�Had it hit Earth, it probably would have been like the big one in 1859, but the effect today, with our modern technologies, would have been tremendous,� said Luhmann, who is part of the STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) team and based at UC Berkeley�s Space Sciences Laboratory.
A study last year estimated that the cost of a solar storm like the Carrington Event could reach $2.6 trillion worldwide. A considerably smaller event on March 13, 1989, led to the collapse of Canada�s Hydro-Quebec power grid and a resulting loss of electricity to six million people for up to nine hours.
�An extreme space weather storm � a solar superstorm � is a low-probability, high-consequence event that poses severe threats to critical infrastructures of the modern society,� warned Liu, who is with the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. �The cost of an extreme space weather event, if it hits Earth, could reach trillions of dollars with a potential recovery time of 4-10 years. Therefore, it is paramount to the security and economic interest of the modern society to understand solar superstorms.�
Video from STEREO-A -- the CME looks like a halo because it was heading straight for the satellite. The STEREO
website has some more.
Posted by DaveH at March 20, 2014 12:47 PM