Carrington Event Comparison Versus Recent Solar Storms

Carrington Event Comparison Versus Recent Solar Storms

How how bad have the solar storms of the past decade when compared to the Carrington Event?

In this video, astrophysicist Dr. Tamitha Skov does a great job of comparing the big solar storms of the past decade with the yet to be surpassed Carrington Event.

CarringtonComparison from Dr. Tamitha Mulligan Skov on Vimeo.

The solar storm of 1859, also known as the Carrington event, was a powerful geomagnetic solar storm in 1859 during solar cycle 10. A solar coronal mass ejection hit Earth’s magnetosphere and induced one of the largest geomagnetic storms on record. The associated “white light flare” in the solar photosphere was observed and recorded by English astronomers Richard C. Carrington and Richard Hodgson.

Studies have shown that a solar storm of this magnitude occurring today would likely cause widespread problems for modern civilization.

The solar storm of 2012 was of similar magnitude, but it passed Earth’s orbit without striking the Earth.