How Solar Storms Could Unleash Chaos on Earth

The Sun impacts the daily life of every being on Earth, and can very easily put it off track. In September 1859, telegraph systems across Europe and North America stopped working and started sparking out of nowhere, Science Alert reported.

In some places, these systems also caught fire. Hours before this phenomenon, several researchers observed a solar flare coming from the sun. Solar flare is an intense burst of radiation emitted from the Sun, towards the Earth or any other planet. Many experts claimed that the destruction of the telegraph systems resulted from this solar flare. 

The happenings of 1859 came to be known as the Carrington Event, Science Alert reported. The Carrington Event was the first Solar flare phenomenon recorded by researchers. Much evidence regarding the solar flares has come through analyzing levels of radioactive carbon – known as radiocarbon, or carbon-14 in tree rings.

In 2012, a research team led by Fusa Miyake, at Nagoya University in Japan stated that extreme solar storms could produce abrupt changes in the radiocarbon concentrations found within tree rings, Science Alert reported. The team found that there was a massive spike in radiocarbon within trees during AD774 and correlated it to an extreme storm, during those times. The methodology was used to confirm storms that took place in AD993, 660BC, 5259BC, and 7176BC. 

As per this method of radiocarbon analysis, the most extreme solar storm that occurred on Earth took place around 14,370 years ago, according to researchers, Science Alert reported. Experts want to continue to understand more about these solar storms, to handle them better in the future.

According to researchers, the biggest danger posed by solar storms is their ability to destroy a satellite fleet and bring down power grids, Science Alert reported. Being able to predict these storms would give grid operators a heads-up to arrange the systems to prevent further losses.