Latest news with #CarringtonEvent
New Indian Express
17-07-2025
- Science
- New Indian Express
Kerala's 150-year-old magnetic data offers new clues to predict deadly solar storms
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Over a century-and-a-half-old data from an observatory in Kerala may hold the key to the world to understand and predict deadly solar storms. Magnetic records from the 19th century found at the Trivandrum Observatory, now functioning as Astronomical Observatory under the University of Kerala, have added fresh insight into one of Earth's most powerful solar storms - the 1859 Carrington Event. The data revealed that a significant geomagnetic disturbance had hit the Earth just days before the deadly super storm of September 2, 1859. Although the previous disturbance on August 28, 1859 was observed and recorded by scientists the world over, it was largely regarded as minor and insignificant. However, researchers at Kerala University have now revealed through a study that this earlier disturbance 'primed' the Earth's magnetic field and set the stage for the dramatic impact of the Carrington Event just days later. The Carrington Event of 1859 was the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history, It was caused by a massive coronal mass ejection from the sun, reaching the Earth in just 17.6 hours. The event caused disruptions to telegraph systems, including sparking and fires in some stations. The Trivandrum Observatory that recorded the event was set up in 1837 by Swathi Thirunal, the then ruler of erstwhile Travancore. The facility was handed over to Kerala University in 1975.
The Hindu
16-07-2025
- Science
- The Hindu
Thiruvananthapuram Observatory logs shed new light on solar flare that rocked Earth in 1859
Researchers at Kerala University have unearthed vital historical data that sheds new light on the 1859 Carrington Event, one of most intense geomagnetic storms. Drawing from long-overlooked magnetic logs preserved at the historic Thiruvananthapuram Astronomical Observatory, the team has decoded hidden clues that could reshape the understanding of solar mega-storms and their future threat to modern civilisation. The Carrington Event, triggered by a colossal solar flare, slammed Earth's magnetosphere on September 2, 1859, unleashing global auroras and sparking unexplained surges in telegraph systems. While 19th-century technology endured the chaos, the scientists warn that a similar event today could cripple navigation systems, disrupt power grids, paralyse broadband networks and cellular communications, and trigger economic losses exceeding $1 trillion. Led by R. Jayakrishnan, the Observatory's Director, the university's research team analysed magnetic records made in the days before and after the 1859 solar outburst. Their findings, now published in the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) publication, Advances in Space Research, reveal that Thiruvananthapuram's logs, neglected for over a century, captured not only the main storm but also a precursor solar flare on August 28, 1859. 'Although documented historically, it (the earlier flare) was long overlooked due to its modest appearance. The new analysis reveals that the incident likely destabilised Earth's magnetic environment, effectively heightening the damage inflicted by the subsequent flare just days later,' Prof. Jayakrishnan explains. What distinguishes Thiruvananthapuram's records is the precision of its measurements. Magnetic data had been captured at intervals of 2, 3, and 5 minutes, contrasting Mumbai's Colaba Observatory which recorded data at 5-minute intervals only. These fine-grained analog observations are being digitised as part of an archival initiative supported by the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi. Prof. Jayakrishnan adds that the study reaffirms Kerala's historical role in advancing solar storm research. By applying modern modelling tools to legacy datasets, the researchers reconstructed how solar energy shaped Earth's magnetic fields over a century and a half ago. 'We are not just studying the past, but also preparing for tomorrow,' the principal investigator said. 'Mega-storms may be rare, but when they hit, they can upend modern life. Insights from Thiruvananthapuram are helping us anticipate such threats.'
India.com
26-05-2025
- Science
- India.com
Neither humans nor birds, Earth will be destroyed in just a moment due to..., know what is Miyake event
Solar storm- Representative image We all have heard since our childhood that a day will come when everything on Earth will be destroyed. Adding to the theory, it is also said that 'Mahapralaya' occurred on Earth millions of years ago, leading to destruction of everything on Earth. However, this story is about an event, which is assumed to be more dangerous than this 'Mahapralaya' in our universe. Largest-ever solar storm In a massive discovery reported in 2023, an international team of scientists discovered a huge spike in radiocarbon levels 14,300 years ago. The scientists got to the result by analysing ancient tree-rings found in the French Alps. As per the report, scientists discovered that the radiocarbon spike was caused by a massive solar storm, the biggest ever identified, as per a report carried by IANS. The largest and the directly-observed was a solar storm that occurred in 1859. It is known as the Carrington Event and was caused massive disruption on Earth. As a result of the storm, telegraph machines were destroyed, creating a night-time aurora so bright that birds began to sing. Details on Miyake Events It has also been known that nine such extreme solar storms — known as Miyake Events — have been identified as having occurred over the last 15,000 years. As per the IANS report, the most recent confirmed Miyake Events occurred in 993 AD and 774 AD. However, it also reported that this newly-identified 14,300-year-old storm is however the largest that has ever been found. However, the Miyake Events would have been a staggering entire order-of-magnitude greater in size. Extreme solar storms Most importantly, the scientists have warned that it is critical to understand the future risks of events like this, to enable us to prepare, build resilience into our communications and energy systems and shield them from potential damage. 'Extreme solar storms could have huge impacts on Earth. Such super storms could permanently damage the transformers in our electricity grids, resulting in huge and widespread blackouts lasting months,' said Tim Heaton, Professor of Applied Statistics in the School of Mathematics at the University of Leeds in the UK. (With inputs from agencies)
India Today
24-05-2025
- Science
- India Today
Blast from the Sun 14,000 years ago was so powerful trees still remember it
Scientists have uncovered evidence of a colossal solar storm that struck Earth more than 14,000 years ago, an event so powerful that its effects are still recorded in tree rings in the upcoming July 2025 issue of Earth and Planetary Science Letters, this ancient storm, which occurred around 12,350 BC, dwarfs any solar storm recorded in modern history and would wreak havoc on today's technology if it were to happen as a "Miyake Event," this storm far surpasses the infamous Carrington Event of 1859, previously considered the benchmark for extreme solar activity. Miyake Events are identified by spikes in carbon-14 levels found in tree rings—carbon-14 being a radioactive isotope produced when solar particles collide with Earth's atmosphere. Since the first discovery by Fusa Miyake in 2012, at least six such events have been confirmed, including those in 774 AD and 993 12,350 BC Miyake Event stands out due to its immense scale and the challenges it posed to scientists trying to interpret it. The spike in carbon-14 was detected in Scots Pine trees along France's Drouzet River, and corroborated by matching beryllium-10 levels in Greenland ice cores, confirming the storm's global interpreting these signals was complicated by the fact that the event occurred during the Ice Age, a period with very different atmospheric and climatic conditions compared to the relatively stable Holocene epoch when most other Miyake Events tackle this, researchers Kseniia Golubenko and Ilya Usoskin from the University of Oulu, Finland, developed a specialised chemistry-climate model. This model accounts for Ice Age variables such as ice sheet boundaries, sea levels, and geomagnetic fields, enabling accurate analysis of the ancient findings reveal that the 12,350 BC storm unleashed a solar particle bombardment 500 times stronger than the largest solar particle storm recorded by satellites in put this in perspective, during the 2005 event, a passenger flying over the poles might have received a year's worth of cosmic radiation in one hour; during the Ice Age event, the same dose would have been delivered in just eight discovery not only redefines the worst-case scenario for space weather but also opens the door to studying even older solar storms, potentially uncovering more extreme events hidden in Earth's ancient Watch
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
How space weather impacts us: A look at some of the worst solar storms in history
Last week, the sun spat out the strongest solar flare of the year so far, a burst of radiation and light that caused brief radio blackouts on the sunlit side of the Earth. Despite its impressive magnitude — the flare was an X-class, the most severe type of solar flare — it went largely unnoticed to those on the ground not dialled in to space news. But geomagnetic storms and more serious types of space weather, which can follow solar flares, have the ability to shut down power grids, disrupt aircraft routes, global communications and GPS, and damage satellites and spacecraft. It has not only happened to us before, but it could happen again. On Sept. 1, 1859, amateur astronomers Richard Carrington and Richard Hodgson both witnessed a massive flare of light from the sun's surface while observing a cluster of sunspots. Within a day, a geomagnetic storm had struck the Earth, sparking dazzling arrays of aurora borealis and knocking out telegraph systems across Europe and North America. Telegraph operators across Europe and North America found their systems overwhelmed and signals down, with some wires overheating so much they triggered fires. Other workers unplugged batteries only to find that the telegraph systems kept humming away, supercharged by the sun. One superintendent from Boston, Mass., whose observations were recorded in an 1860 article in the American Journal of Science, reported that a telegraph wire between Boston and Fall River "had no battery connected with it on Saturday, and yet there was a current upon it during the entire day." So what happened? Today, experts believe that the 1859 geomagnetic storm, now known as the Carrington Event, was caused by at least one, or possibly two, coronal mass ejections (CME). These are immense eruptions of solar material that often follow a solar flare. Because the sun's equator rotates faster than its poles, its magnetic fields can get tangled up. When the strain gets too severe, these magnetic fields can snap, releasing a burst of energy or solar material out into space. A solar flare emits radiation that interacts with our upper atmosphere, impacting radio signals, without really affecting us on the ground. But a CME is a massive eruption of charged particles and plasma, sometimes millions of miles wide, which can travel up to thousands of kilometres per second on solar winds. When its magnetic field slams into the Earth's, it can spark geomagnetic storms that disrupt critical infrastructure. In 1859, that was telegraph operations, but today, it's power grids, satellites and global navigation systems. Because the northern lights are caused by charged particles interacting with our magnetic field at the poles, a CME can also cause dramatic displays of aurora borealis, like the ones seen during geomagnetic storms in October and May 2024. Although they can occur independently of each other, stronger solar flares are often accompanied by CMEs, according to Robyn Fiori, a research scientist in the space weather group of the Canadian Hazards Information Service with Natural Resources Canada. "There's lots of different critical systems that can be impacted by space weather. So it's a good idea to keep track of what's going on," she said. The last big solar event to have a notable impact on a power grid was in 2003, Fiori said, when a number of geomagnetic storms known as "the Halloween storms" rerouted aircraft, affected GPS systems used for deep-sea drilling, prompted astronauts in the International Space Station to take shelter from radiation in a specific part of the station, damaged a Japanese satellite beyond repair and triggered a power outage in Malmö, Sweden. This event included a flare so large it overwhelmed the X-ray detectors on a number of satellites. It was later estimated to be an X28 flare, according to the European Space Agency, making it the most powerful in recorded observational history. The biggest solar storm in Canada's history came in March 1989, when a CME struck Earth's magnetic field, sending electric currents flowing through the rock of the Canadian Shield to the transmission lines of Hydro-Quebec. The resulting province-wide blackout left millions of residents in the darkness and cold for nine hours. "That's the strongest event that we've had in this technological age," Fiori said, "and it's really what we've used as a benchmark to make sure that systems are safe." Other notable solar storms include one in 1909 that disrupted telegraph lines across the U.S., and one in 1967 that jammed radar systems operating in Alaska, Greenland and the U.K. amid mounting tensions between NATO and the Soviet Union, briefly sparking concerns of a Soviet attack. It's been more than two decades since a solar storm caused significant power fluctuations and communications disruptions, but in an increasingly technological world, it's something space forecasters are keeping an eye on to stay a step ahead of the next solar storm. For the next year or so, solar flares and solar activity will be higher than usual, as we're within the period of solar maximum, the peak of the sun's 11-year cycle. "We do have a lot of different technologies that are sensitive to space weather. Since 1989, for example, we've become much more dependent on GNSS or GPS for navigation. And that can be impacted by space weather," Fiori said. She added that Canada, due to its proximity to the northern magnetic pole, is more vulnerable to space weather. "But it also means that we're in the very best place to observe it so that we can build accurate forecasts."
