A disaster-inducing solar storm is an 'inevitability' in the future and will have dire consequences for all of us here on Earth, a report has warned.
Satellite failures, blackouts and unpredictable volcanic activity may all result from cataclysmic geomagnetic forces caused by the sun. Massively powerful eruptions from our parent star in the form of solar flares and coronal mass ejections could occur at any time.
Researchers at the US Geological Survey have published a report in the scientific journal Space Weather examining an event known as the New York Railroad Storm, which occurred in 1921. It was a huge geomagnetic storm that blacked out large parts of the northeastern United States.
They say the effects could be repeated at any given moment. Especially as historical measurement and prediction technologies are no guarantee of being able to spot them coming.
All they can say is that our planet will likely get hit with another massive solar geomagnetic super storm within the next 100 years.
'The severe space weather event of 13‐16 May 1921 produced some spectacular technological impacts, in some cases causing destructive fires. It was characterized by extreme solar and geomagnetic variations, and spectacular aurora, recorded at many locations around the world,' the researchers wrote.
'A wealth of information is available in scientific journals, newspapers, and other sources, enabling us to reconstruct the storm timeline. This shows that a series of major coronal mass ejections (CMEs) bombarded Earth in May 1921.
'The first pair may have prepared the way for latter intense activity, clearing density from the region between Sun and Earth, and energizing Earth's magnetosphere. Thus, a subsequent CME could travel more quickly and drive even more energy into the already active magnetosphere.
'The timeline of the 1921 event, including the confusion caused by prosaic faults, can be used to construct scenarios for use today by those emergency managers planning how to reduce the adverse impacts of future space weather events.'
The most famous coronal mass ejection occurred in 1859 and caused a geomagnetic storm called the 'Carrington Event' as a pulse of charged particles bombarded Earth's magnetosphere.
If this happened today, the results would be devastating. In April, Nasa wrote: 'The Carrington Event compressed the Earth's magnetic field so violently that currents were created in telegraph wires so great that many wires sparked and gave telegraph operators shocks.
'Were a Carrington-class event to impact the Earth today, speculation holds that damage might occur to global power grids and electronics on a scale never yet experienced.'
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