Two years ago, the Earth was almost hit by a solar superstorm, technically called coronal mass ejection. It’s been studied by a team led by Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado that included scientists from NASA and other universities. Their conclusion is that if this solar storm had hit the Earth we would still picking up the pieces.
In 2012, very few people talked about this superstorm even though it was the most powerful of the last 150 years. In 1859, what was called the Carringon event because it was first studied by astronomer Richard Christopher Carringon caused problems to the network of telegraphs, which were then the state of the art of technology.
In September 1859, a series of coronal mass ejections hit Earth for a few days with a power never recorded before. Aurora borealis caused by that intense geomagnetic activity were seen in the northern hemisphere down to Cuba, much further south than normal.
Today our society is highly dependent on electronics and a particularly powerful solar storm is really dangerous. If the superstorm of 2012 had hit the Earth, X-rays and ultraviolet radiation would have ionized the upper layers of the atmosphere causing a disturbance to radio channels and problems to the GPS network. Waves of ionized particles would’ve reached the Earth’s surface with the danger of causing damage to electrical grids resulting in blackouts.
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The effects of a solar superstorm could be truly catastrophic because it would strike globally. According to a study by the National Academy of Sciences, the economic impact would be more than $2 trillion. It may take years to repair all the damages that a storm of that kind would cause to the electrical grids with all the consequences on people’s lives and work activities.
The STEREO-A spacecraft was hit by the 2012 superstorm. This is one of the STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) twin probes launched in 2006 exactly to observe the Sun. They were built to withstand extreme conditions so STEREO-A survived but generally electronic devices on Earth are much more vulnerable.
Coronal mass ejections are common events and occasionally some of them hit the Earth. Studying these phenomena is crucial to understand what are the best ways to defend ourselves.
This video tells the story of the 2012 solar superstorm.
