In the early morning hours of May 15, 1921, the crew, who were on a mission in the North Pacific, saw a sudden bright streak in the sky. These bright red stripes extending in a north-south direction cover most of the sky, illuminating the entire area exceptionally brightly. [1] Ten minutes later, the Appia Observatory, located near the equator, observed the same phenomenon. [2]
They saw the aurora borealis in the lower and middle latitudes.
The Aurora borealis is named for its unique attribute of being "brilliant at both poles". The energetic particles produced by the Sun are affected by the geomagnetic field and collide with atmospheric molecules at the earth's poles. The more spectacular the aurora, the more intense the solar activity. This time, the aurora is no longer confined to the poles.
Science magazine reports on aurora phenomenon in low latitudes around the world 丨 References[3]
This sudden "beautiful aurora" actually implies a greater threat. Through continuous monitoring of the geomagnetic environment, observatories around the world have found that the magnetic field strength in some areas has increased several times more than when it was calm. Under the interference of the strong magnetic field, even the compass kept vibrating, and it was completely "unable to find the north".
A series of phenomena confirm the suspicions of experts that the Earth is experiencing a "super solar storm" at this time.
Fire rises in the sky
This "visual feast" from the sun didn't excite people for long.
Norway, The United Kingdom, the United States, Sweden... Unusually strong currents began to emerge in the global telegraph system, and communication services were interrupted everywhere. The dark current did not stop there, and they were planning to use the "fiery fire" to echo the aurora that shone in the sky.
Within two days, fires broke out in many places in Europe and the United States. After the fire at New England Central Station, the media interviewed Hatch, the telegraph operator at the time. His description restores the cause of the fire: on the night of work, he noticed that sparks suddenly began to "burst" on the wires, and soon the control device of the telegraph burst into flames, and the fire quickly spread and destroyed the entire control tower, causing serious delays in the trains entering and leaving the station.
At the Swedish telegraph station 3,000 kilometers away, the switch also caught fire inexplicably. This caused the disruption of the domestic telecommunications network and the catastrophic destruction of the communications center. In the next few days, the fuse of the telegraph system in many places around the world was broken, and the stray voltage on some wires even exceeded 1000 volts, not only that, but the dialing and receiving functions of the telephone were all invalidated, and only the "buzzing" noise could be heard. For a time, the world was caught in a situation of communication blockage, and exchanges between many countries and institutions were interrupted. [4]
The black dots in the figure are countries and regions that reported aurora and communication anomalies between May 14 and 15, 1921 丨 References[1]
On May 16, The New York Times published a detailed report on the Central Station fire: "Sunspots' Close Connection to the Railroad." The report pointed the aurora phenomenon and the power interference at solar activity, and the resulting destruction of the power system directly "triggered" this huge fire. Some scholars have referred to this solar eruption as the "New York Railroad Superstorm"[5] to mark the huge impact of the event.
The headlines of the Solar Storm in May 1921 spaceweather.com
Changes in the geomagnetic field caused by solar storms can affect all kinds of power equipment. For systems that rely on electricity, this is an unavoidable disaster.
Not the first time is not over yet
This is not the first time that solar activity has had such a serious impact on human daily life.
In September 1859, the Carrington Incident, the strongest solar storm ever encountered by mankind, occurred. The violent geomagnetic disturbance seriously damaged the global telegraph network, the highest technological system of human society at that time. There were sparks in the telegraph machines in many places. One telegrapher recalled that he even felt a strong electric shock when his forehead accidentally touched the ground wire.
After entering the 21st century, satellites have also fallen into a storm disaster. Around Halloween in October 2003, a series of extremely strong explosions occurred on the sun, and due to magnetic field disturbances and the influence of high-energy particles, a large number of satellites were affected or even directly out of control.
Coronal mass ejection during the Halloween event in 2003, the largest solar activity eruption on October 28 丨YouTube/NASA video
As a result, communications across the globe are disrupted. The maritime satellite telephone system is paralyzed, the communication of the Everest Expedition team is interrupted, and the GPS navigation and positioning accuracy is greatly reduced... In order to avoid radiation damage to the human body, many flights had to lower their altitude, resulting in overcrowded routes, and even astronauts on missions on the International Space Station were urgently transferred to temporary rest modules. [7]
Simulation animation of the impact of solar activity on satellites 丨YouTube/What if
In fact, the sun is not as calm as seen on the ground, and the surface of the sun is erupting almost every day, just like volcanic eruptions and earthquakes on the earth, solar activity is also a physical process that releases huge energy in a short period of time.
The process by which the Sun erupts large amounts of high-velocity moving mass material is called coronal mass ejection (CME), and the phenomenon of local abrupt brightening that occurs on the surface of the Sun is called solar flares. When the high-speed particles produced by the solar explosion reach the earth, a large number of charged particles are injected into the earth and move around the earth, and the current enhancement of the earth's rings triggers a global geomagnetic disturbance, which is often referred to as the "earth magnetic storm".
Coronal mass ejection 丨 NASA Goddard
Solar Flare 丨 NASA Goddard
The induced electric field generated by changes in the geomagnetic field increases the potential difference on long-distance transmission lines. The high-intensity current generated in the wire will exceed the bearing capacity of the equipment, thus affecting the normal use of the power system. At the same time, excessive current will also cause the temperature in the line to rise, resulting in more serious consequences such as explosions and fires.
The inseparable relationship between magnetism and electricity indicates that the development of current science and technology will make the consequences more and more serious.
The more advanced, the more dangerous
In 2021, scientists published a report at the American Computer Association's Data Communications Professional Group Meeting (SIGCOMM '21), pointing to the "end of the internet" that solar superstorms could bring. Solar activity is likely to disrupt submarine cables between countries, causing disruptions to the global Internet. The report mentions that while current monitoring methods can provide at least 13 hours of early warning of the arrival of solar storms, there are still too few early warning measures we can do.
Distribution of land transmission lines and submarine cables丨References[8]
At present, it is difficult to accurately predict "space weather". For the forecast of "space weather", the probability of events is mostly speculated through observations and data. Some astrophysicists predict that a super solar storm within the next decade is 1.6%-12% likely to cause catastrophic damage, and once such an event breaks out, it is very likely to cause large-scale damage to the Internet. [8]
In the face of catastrophic space weather events, humans have not "sat still". To reduce the impact of solar storms, many countries have conducted real-time monitoring of the sun and forecasts of possible solar activity to choose whether satellites and power grids need to be shut down early.
Our lives have long been inseparable from modern technologies such as electricity, communications, and satellites. The solar storm event is a huge test of technological development. The pace of scientific and technological development will not stop, and the road to understanding nature is still long.
bibliography
[1] S.M.Silvermana, E.W.Cliver. Low-latitude auroras: the magnetic storm of 14–15 May 1921. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics ,63 (2001), 523–535.
[2] Angenheister, G., & Westland, C. J. (1921). The magnetic storm of May 13-16, 1921, at Apia Observatory, Samoa. Journal of Geophysical Research, 26(1–2), 30– 31.
[3] Douglass, A. E. (1921). The aurora of May 14, 1921. Science, 54(1383), 14-14.
[4] M. Hapgood. The Great Storm of May 1921: An Exemplar of a Dangerous Space Weather Event.Space Weather, 7( 2019), 950-975.
[5] Love, J. J., Hayakawa, H., & Cliver, E. W. (2019). Intensity and impact of the New York Railroad superstorm of May 1921. Space Weather, 17(8), 1281-1292.
[6] D.H.Boteler. The super storms of August/September 1859 and their effects on the telegraph system. Advances in Space Research, Volume 38, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 159-172
[7] https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/fO8rCkWanoN4R_8ksd3Rgg
[8] Solar Superstorms: Planning for an Internet Apocalypse. SIGCOMM '21: Proceedings of the 2021 ACM SIGCOMM 2021 Conference, August 2021,Pages 692–704.
Author: SY
Edit: Owl
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