In the year 1859 there was a tremendous solar superstorm. It was preceded by sunspots that were so large they were visible to the naked eye. The Earth was hit by two Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), one right after the other. The first one had the same orientation as the Earth’s magnetic field, and it compressed the Earth’s magnetic field. It is believed that the first CME of this superstorm took between 40 and 60 hours to reach the Earth. That is about the average time for a CME to reach the Earth from the sun. As the plasma from this CME streamed past the Earth, it was gradually rotating. When it rotated enough to become opposite in polarity from the Earth’s magnetic field, the field lines reconnected into a simpler shape, resulting in a huge release of energy. This created awesome auroral displays and caused currents to flow through telegraph wires, totally disrupting communications.

This CME coincided with the largest solar flare ever seen. X-rays from this solar flare reached the Earth in slightly over 8 minutes, bathing the Earth’s upper atmosphere with great intensity, and heating it, causing it to expand greatly. Had there been any satellites, their orbits would have rapidly decayed and they would have come crashing down, mostly burning up in the atmosphere, with perhaps some parts hitting the ground. This orbital decay, of course does not apply to geosynchronous satellites (which are by necessity, are 22,300 miles up), though they would be bathed in intense radiation if they had been up there in 1859.

The first CME created a cavity in the plasma that normally fills in the space between the Earth and Sun. (In a sense you can say that the Earth orbits within the Sun’s atmosphere because plasma from the sun is dense enough at say, 100, 000,000 miles from the sun to still think of it as the sun’s atmosphere). The solar wind had not had time to even begin to fill in the void created by the first CME before a second CME was thrown off from the sun. This second CME is believed to have taken only about 17 hours to reach the Earth because of being unimpeded by the plasma that is normally ubiquitous between the sun and Earth.

This second CME had a polarity opposite of the Earth’s magnetic field when it hit our planet. This caused it to hit with such violence that the Van Allen belts would have been completely destroyed. Of course the Van Allen belts were recreated after the event was over. This CME caused auroras to be seen over much of the world. Auroras were seen as far south as the Caribbean.

There was an intense and long lasting wave of protons from the solar flare and the two CMEs. These extremely energetic protons would have had enough energy to create neutrons by colliding with molecules in the upper atmosphere. These neutrons would have rained down onto the Earth. In 1859 there were no radiation detectors, so no one was aware of the increase in ground level radiation. These neutrons would have created “nitrate anomalies” in our atmosphere.

The intense auroras and accompanying ionospheric currents would have induced currents in the ground. These ground currents would have spanned continents. Good thing they had no power grids back then.

Have you ever wondered why the Alaskan pipeline has massive ground wires every so many feet? Their purpose is too bleed off currents caused by induction from ionospheric currents and auroral activity. Intense currents can be induced in major power lines by the same process. There are certain safeguards in our power grids to mitigate such effects, but these have been known to fail during solar storms of much less intensity than the 1859 event. Power grids at extreme northern and southern latitudes are particularly vulnerable.

Under ordinary conditions, solar panel energy production in satellites is reduced by about 2 percent a year because of cosmic radiation degrading the panels. During a superstorm, such as the one in 1859, satellite solar panels would be seriously degraded. Today’s solar panels are more robust than those of recent years, and geosynchronous satellites are built to take more punishment than those in lower orbits. Nonetheless, the effects from such a superstorm could have quite serious consequences for these satellites.

Large transformers that feed power to enormous power grids would have DC currents induced into them by the atmospheric currents that a solar storm creates. If they are intense enough, this can heat up transformers so much that their coolants would vaporize. A solar storm, such as the one on May 15, 1921 would cause about half of North America to experience a blackout if it happened today. A superstorm, such as the one in 1859 could put the entire USA in the dark.

Solar disruptions currently cause about $100 million worth of damage to military satellites. A storm such as the one in 1859 would have devastating consequences for those satellites.
It is estimated that the Earth received about as much energy in from the 1859 storm as it has from all major solar events of the last 40 years put together.

A solar superstorm such as the one in 1859 is believed to occur every 500 years.This is based on analysis of nitrate anomalies in ice cores from the Antarctic. Every 50 years or so we experience a solar storm that can fry satellites and cause blackouts all across the country. The last such storm on Nov 13, 1960. We are about due for such a storm. As for events such as the one in 1859, with any luck we won’t experience one again for another three or four hundred years.