Getting Ready for the Next Big Solar Storm

By Dr. Tony Phillips – “In Sept. 1859, on the eve of a below-average1 solar cycle, the sun unleashed one of the most powerful storms in centuries. The underlying flare was so unusual, researchers still aren’t sure how to categorize it. The blast peppered Earth with the most energetic protons in half-a-millennium, induced electrical currents that set telegraph offices on fire, and sparked Northern Lights over Cuba and Hawaii.

This week, officials have gathered at the National Press Club in Washington DC to ask themselves a simple question: What if it happens again?

‘A similar storm today might knock us for a loop,’ says Lika Guhathakurta, a solar physicist at NASA headquarters.” Read more.

 

 

About these ads