The Solar Storm of 1859

Day 205 / 365

Today we are worried about major threats to humanity like super viruses, or nuclear war, or climate change. But least, there are things we can do to counter these. And then there are threats from outer space, which we can do nothing about. Solar flares are one such threat.

Solar flares are a sudden increase in the brightness of the sun and are usually accompanied by the ejection of plasma particles. Even if these are directed towards the earth, its magnetic field usually shields us from them.

But sometimes these flares can be too powerful, as it happened one time in September 1859. The plasma particles reached the earth and started messing up with all electronics. We didn’t have phones yet, but telegraphs were widely used. These particles traveled through the telegraph wires and started causing shocks in the telegraph offices. Papers in these offices caught fire.

Sure back in 1859, most of the world was not electrified, so this solar flare was a nothing more than a mild inconvenience. But what would happen if something like this happened today? We would lose GPS, phone reception and even the Internet! And even electronic equipment that aren’t online might fail. Worst of all, even with satellites constantly monitoring the sun for indicators of such flares, we might not have more than a few minutes notice.

What’s good is that storms as big as 1859 are quite rare, and are estimated to occur every 500 years.

This post is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

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