Outburst — 7: A Storm is Coming

The largest geomagnetic storm on record was known as the Carrington Event. It occurred in September 1859, starting numerous fires and taking down the telegraph network.

SAC PEAK, NEW MEXICO

Danny Aaronson sat at his desk inside the observatory, paging through screen after screen of data. He shook his head in wonder. The information that was displayed seemed impossible. There must be something wrong with the recording instruments.

The largest geomagnetic storm on record was known as the Carrington Event. It occurred in September 1859, starting numerous fires and taking down the telegraph network. The data he was looking at appeared to forecast an even more powerful storm. The systems to be affected didn’t even exist back then, so costs and consequences would be far greater.

Solar flares went through three stages: the precursor, the impulsive, and the decay stage. Danny had watched as this impending incident accelerated, moving through the precursor stage, where he detected the soft x-ray emission he expected to find. It was quickly approaching the impulsive stage, where electrons and protons rose to energies well over one million electron volts. This disturbance had already surpassed that power. Eruption…