Ever wonder how badly we could be impacted by events on the Sun? EOS.org (Earth and Space Science News) looks back to 1941 in, “The Geomagnetic Blitz of September 1941“:
A close-up of an erupting prominence with Earth inset at the approximate scale of the image. Taken on July 1, 2002. Credits: ESA&NASA/SOHO
Magnetic activity recorded at the Cheltenham, Md., observatory abruptly increased at about 19:45 UT on 18 September [Fleming, 1943, p. 204]. Almost simultaneously, at 19:45 and 19:50 UT, the Pennsylvania Water and Power Company recorded uncontrolled voltage variations in transmission lines connecting generating plants on the Susquehanna River with Baltimore and Washington. At the moment when the auroral brilliance was greatest, system transformers vibrated and groaned as a result of geomagnetically induced currents [McNish,1941b].
In other words, a power grid on the edge of collapse. Radio becomes spotty, and the visual phenomenon have consequences for a convoy of war materiel. Their conclusion?
Zooming ahead to today, we are more dependent than ever on modern technology. For this reason, the plausible future occurrence of a space weather superstorm could have widespread impact—disrupting over-the-horizon radio communication, degrading the accuracy of global positioning systems, damaging satellite electronics and increasing their orbital drag, interfering with geophysical surveys, exposing airplane pilots and passengers to unhealthy radiation levels, and even interrupting electric power distribution for prolonged periods [e.g., Baker et al., 2008;Cannon et al., 2013].
(h/t Spaceweather.com)
