Solar storm A solar storm is a disturbance on the Sun, which can emanate outward across the heliosphere, affecting the entire Solar System, including Earth and its magnetosphere, and is the cause of space weather in the short-term with long-term patterns comp ...

s of different types are caused by disturbances on the Sun, most often from

coronal mass ejection A coronal mass ejection (CME) is a significant release of plasma and accompanying magnetic field from the Sun's corona into the heliosphere. CMEs are often associated with solar flares and other forms of solar activity, but a broadly accept ...

s (CMEs) and

solar flare A solar flare is an intense localized eruption of electromagnetic radiation in the Sun's atmosphere. Flares occur in active regions and are often, but not always, accompanied by coronal mass ejections, solar particle events, and other sol ...

s from

active regions An active region is a temporary region in the Sun's atmosphere characterized by a strong and complex magnetic field. They are often associated with sunspots and are commonly the source of violent eruptions such as coronal mass ejections and sola ...

, or, less often, from coronal holes. Minor to active solar storms (i.e. storming restricted to higher latitudes) may occur under elevated background

solar wind The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona. This plasma mostly consists of electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic energy between . The composition of the sol ...

conditions when the

interplanetary magnetic field The interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), now more commonly referred to as the heliospheric magnetic field (HMF), is the component of the solar magnetic field that is dragged out from the solar corona by the solar wind flow to fill the Solar Sy ...

(IMF) orientation is southward, toward the Earth (which also leads to much stronger storming conditions from CME-related sources).

Background

Active stars produce disturbances in

space weather Space weather is a branch of space physics and aeronomy, or heliophysics, concerned with the time varying conditions within the Solar System, including the solar wind, emphasizing the space surrounding the Earth, including conditions in the ...

and, if strong enough, in their own space climate. Science studies such phenomena with the field of

heliophysics Heliophysics (from the prefix " helio", from Attic Greek ''hḗlios'', meaning Sun, and the noun "physics": the science of matter and energy and their interactions) is the physics of the Sun and its connection with the Solar System. NASA define ...

, which is an interdisciplinary combination of solar physics and

planetary science Planetary science (or more rarely, planetology) is the scientific study of planets (including Earth), celestial bodies (such as moons, asteroids, comets) and planetary systems (in particular those of the Solar System) and the processes of their ...

. In the

Solar System The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...

, the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

can produce intense

geomagnetic Earth's magnetic field, also known as the geomagnetic field, is the magnetic field that extends from Earth's interior out into space, where it interacts with the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun. The magnetic f ...

and energetic particle storms capable of causing severe damage to technology. It can result in large scale

power outage A power outage (also called a powercut, a power out, a power failure, a power blackout, a power loss, or a blackout) is the loss of the electrical power network supply to an end user. There are many causes of power failures in an electricity ...

s, disruption or blackouts of radio communications (including GPS), damage or destruction of

submarine communications cable A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the sea bed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean and sea. The first submarine communications cables laid beginning in the 1850s carried tel ...

s, and temporary to permanent disabling of satellites and other electronics. Intense solar storms may also be hazardous to high-latitude, high-altitude aviation and to

human spaceflight Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight) is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be ...

. Geomagnetic storms are the cause of

aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

. The most significant known solar storm, across the most parameters, occurred in September 1859 and is known as the "

Carrington event The Carrington Event was the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history, peaking from 1 to 2 September 1859 during solar cycle 10. It created strong auroral displays that were reported globally and caused sparking and even fires in mul ...

". The damage from the most potent solar storms is capable of existentially threatening the stability of modern human civilization, although proper preparedness and mitigation can substantially reduce the hazards. Proxy data from Earth, as well as analysis of stars similar to the Sun, suggest that the Sun may be also capable of producing so called superflares, which are as much as 1000x stronger than any flares in the historical record. Other research, like models of solar flares and statistics of extreme solar events reconstructed using cosmogenic isotope data in terrestrial archives, indicate otherwise. The discrepancy is not yet resolved and may be related to a biased statistic of the

stellar population During 1944, Walter Baade categorized groups of stars within the Milky Way into stellar populations. In the abstract of the article by Baade, he recognizes that Jan Oort originally conceived this type of classification in 1926: Baade noticed ...

solar analog Solar-type star, solar analogs (also analogues), and solar twins are stars that are particularly similar to the Sun. The stellar classification is a hierarchy with solar twin being most like the Sun followed by solar analog and then solar-type ...

Coronal mass ejections and solar particle events

Events affecting Earth

Proxy evidence

This section contains a list of possible events that are indicated by indirect, or

proxy Proxy may refer to: * Proxy or agent (law), a substitute authorized to act for another entity or a document which authorizes the agent so to act * Proxy (climate), a measured variable used to infer the value of a variable of interest in climate re ...

data. The scientific value of such data remains unresolved. * 7176 BCE Found in

beryllium-10 Beryllium-10 (10Be) is a radioactive isotope of beryllium. It is formed in the Earth's atmosphere mainly by cosmic ray spallation of nitrogen and oxygen. Beryllium-10 has a half-life of 1.39 × 106 years, and decays by beta decay to stable boron- ...

(and other

isotope Isotopes are two or more types of atoms that have the same atomic number (number of protons in their nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemical element), and that differ in nucleon numbers ( mass num ...

s) spike in ice cores and corroborated by tree rings. It unexpectedly appears to have occurred near a

Solar minimum Solar minimum is the regular period of least solar activity in the Sun's 11-year solar cycle. During solar minimum, sunspot and solar flare activity diminishes, and often does not occur for days at a time. On average, the solar cycle takes abou ...

and was as strong as, or probably even slightly stronger than the famous 774–775 CE event. * 5410 BCE * 5259 BCE Found in beryllium-10 spike in ice cores and corroborated by tree rings. At least as strong as the 774–75 event. * 660 BCE * 774–775 CE This extreme solar proton event is known as the Miyake event. It caused the largest and most rapid rise in

carbon-14 Carbon-14, C-14, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and co ...

levels ever recorded. * 993–994 CE It caused a carbon-14 spike visible in tree rings which was used to date Viking archaeological remains in

L’Anse aux Meadows L'Anse aux Meadows ( lit. Meadows Cove) is an archaeological site, first excavated in the 1960s, of a Norse settlement dating to approximately 1,000 years ago. The site is located on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland in the Ca ...

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

to 1021. * 1052 CE found in carbon-14 spike * 1279 CE found in carbon-14 spike

Direct measurements and/or visual observations

Events not affecting Earth

The above events affected

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's sur ...

(and its vicinity, known as the

magnetosphere In astronomy and planetary science, a magnetosphere is a region of space surrounding an astronomical object in which charged particles are affected by that object's magnetic field. It is created by a celestial body with an active interior d ...

), whereas the following events were directed elsewhere in the

and were detected by monitoring spacecraft or other means.

Soft X-ray solar flares

Solar flares are intense localized eruptions of electromagnetic radiation in the Sun's atmosphere. They are often classified based on the peak flux of

soft X-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 ...

s (SXR) measured by the

GOES Goes () is a city and municipality in the southwestern Netherlands on Zuid-Beveland, in the province of Zeeland. The city of Goes has approximately 27,000 residents. History Goes was founded in the 10th century on the edge of a creek: de Korte ...

spacecraft in

geosynchronous orbit A geosynchronous orbit (sometimes abbreviated GSO) is an Earth-centered orbit with an orbital period that matches Earth's rotation on its axis, 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds (one sidereal day). The synchronization of rotation and orbita ...

(see ). The following table lists the largest flares in this respect since June 1996, the beginning of

solar cycle 23 Solar cycle 23 was the 23rd solar cycle since 1755, when extensive recording of solar sunspot activity began. The solar cycle lasted 12.3 years, beginning in August 1996 and ending in December 2008. The maximum smoothed sunspot number observed ...

References

External links

The Most Powerful Solar Flares Ever Recorded
(NASA's SpaceWeather.com)
Solar Proton Events Affecting the Earth Environment (1976 - present)
(SWPC)

(Solarstorms.org)

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Solar storms *

Lists of natural disasters Solar System-related lists