A few days ago, the US Space Weather Prediction Center predicted the development of two geomagnetic storms, one of which, it warned, would likely hit Earth.
Although the SWPC, for its acronym in English, has so far not provided more details about the storm that left the Sun on August 28 and would impact Earth on September 2, this phenomenon was already seen on our planet in 1859.
The geomagnetic storm of 1859, which was described as the “largest and most famous space weather event of the last two hundred years” took place between August 28 and September 3 of that year.
This solar storm, the most intense that has been documented in recent history, was baptized with the name of Evento Carrington. This phenomenon it caused magnetic disturbances and northern lights on virtually the entire planet.
On Mexico several people witnessed this unique event.
At that time it did not happen to adults because there was no Internet and the development of technological systems was incipient, however, if an event of this magnitude were to occur again, global damage would be caused to modern society.
The solar storm of 1859 was due to a major Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) that exploded from the surface of the Sun and went directly to Earth, said Mar Gómez, PhD in Physics and head of meteorology at Tiempo.es, through your Twitter account.
Hours later, the Earth experienced the display of the most powerful northern lights in history, which could be seen in Cuba, The Bahamas, Jamaica, Hawaii, Spain and many more places.
“The sky lit up in red, green and purple auroras so bright that people could read the newspaper in the middle of the night without additional light. In Colorado, the miners believed it was dawn and began their morning routine, ”he said.
Due to Carrington, a significant part of the 200 thousand kilometers of telegraph lines in the world were affected mainly in Europe and North America. These were unusable for eight hours or more, which had an economic impact.
After that great event, other solar storms with less intensity than Carrington struck Earth in 1921, 1960 and 1989 were recorded.
* With information from Gaceta UNAM.
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