Solar storms occur every few years when the Sun is highly active. However, according to a new study, 9,000 years ago, there may have been a massive solar storm on a completely different scale from conventional solar storms. At a time when the Sun is calm, not active.
Evidence of a solar ‘tsunami’ that struck Earth’s atmosphere thousands of years ago has been discovered deep in the ice sheet in Greenland and Antarctica. The new findings have worried scientists about accurately predicting when solar storms will occur.
Significantly larger than any recently recorded solar storm
What triggers a solar storm is usually a solar flare or coronal mass ejection. Roughly enough, the coronal mass ejection, which occurs when the Sun blasts a billion tons of energy particles into space, could hit Earth’s atmosphere in as little as 15 hours if the coronal mass ejection was severe enough. As a result of this reaction, many radioactive nuclides such as carbon-19, beryllium-10 and chlorine-36 are released. Traces of these isotopes trapped in ice or sediment can help us illuminate the history of unusual solar events on Earth, and therefore how often they occur.
The largest traces of this beryllium-10 and chlor-36 ever detected in Earth’s distant past were found in ice cores analyzed in Greenland and Antarctica. After investigations to discover traces of an extremely large solar storm 9,125 years ago, it was stated that this ancient superstorm was triggered by a wave of hot plasma and magnetism from the Sun, and was significantly larger than any recently recorded storm.
Geologist Raimund Muscheler from Lund University in Sweden said: “This is a time-consuming and expensive analytical study.” Noting that it was quite surprising for the team to find traces of a huge, hitherto unknown solar storm associated with low solar activity, Muscheler also drew attention to the importance of doing more research on what this and similar events mean for today’s technology and how we can protect ourselves against these events.
So, what would happen if a solar flare of this size were experienced today?
On the other hand, scientists have warned for the past few years that we are completely unprepared for a solar storm of this size; He stated that we are incapable of predicting these rare disasters and that existing infrastructure is extremely vulnerable to geomagnetic fallout.
If a solar storm of this size happens today, it would affect orbiting satellites, astronauts, air traffic control, power grids and submarine cables, which could result in global power and internet outages that could last for months. Considering our addiction to electricity and the internet, you can guess that this is more than enough to paralyze life on earth.
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