Ancient ice reveals mysterious solar storm
Through analyzes of ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica, a research team led by Lund University in Sweden has found evidence of an extreme solar storm that occurred about 9,200 years ago.
What puzzles the researchers is that the storm took place during one of the sun’s more quiet phases—during which it is generally believed our planet is less exposed to such events.
The sun is a prerequisite for all life on Earth. But our life-giving companion can also cause problems. When there is strong activity on the surface of the sun, more energy is released, something that can give rise to geomagnetic storms. This in turn can cause power outages and communication disturbances.
Predicting solar storms is difficult. It is currently believed that they are more likely during an active phase of the sun, or solar maximum, during the so-called sunspot cycle. However, the new study published in Nature Communications shows that this may not always be the case for very large storms.
“We have studied drill cores from Greenland and Antarctica, and discovered traces of a massive solar storm that hit Earth during one of the sun’s passive phases about 9,200 years ago,” says Raimund Muscheler, geology researcher at Lund University.
The researchers scoured the drill cores for peaks of the radioactive isotopes beryllium-10 and chlorine-36. These are produced by high-energy cosmic particles that reach Earth, and can be preserved in ice and sediment.
“This is time consuming and expensive analytical work. Therefore, we were pleasantly surprised when we found such a peak, indicating a hitherto unknown giant solar storm in connection with low solar activity,” says Raimund Muscheler.
If a similar solar storm were to take place today, it could have devastating consequences. In addition to power outages and radiation damage to satellites, it could pose a danger to air traffic and astronauts as well as a collapse of various communication systems.
“These enormous storms are currently not sufficiently included in risk assessments. It is of the utmost importance to analyze what these events could mean for today’s technology and how we can protect ourselves,” concludes Raimund Muscheler.
See more here: phys.org
Header image: Raimund Muscheler
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JaKo
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Can someone explain this? This article is about a “Solar Storm,” yet:
Mentioned “…beryllium-10 and chlorine-36. These are produced by high-energy cosmic particles…” doesn’t seem to be (a) correct translation or (b) making sense.
As “is believed,” that these HE Cosmic Particles are not produced in our Solar system; however, these are more likely to strike Earth during the Sun’s slumber.
The mandatory fear porn of consequences is regurgitated regardless.
Cheers, JaKo
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Herb Rose
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Hi Jako,
If high energy cosmic particles are not produced by our sun what does produce them? If they come from distant stars or objects wouldn’t their effect and number be less than the energy from light coming from distant stars? Since these particles have mass and positive charges I would think they travel at a slower velocity than light and are affected by magnetic and electrical fields. Why does the Earth have both a negative and positive van Allen belts where positive and negative particles are kept away from the Earth? Could it be that the apparent correlation with the increase in cosmic particles has to do with a different reduction in energy from the sun instead of just a reduction of uv and x-ray energy (which are produced in the solar flares) which effected both the Earth’s electric and magnetic fields?
Herb
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nohomehere
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SEEMS to infer . cosmic particles were reaching the earth because of the lack of solar activity at the same time the unexpected solar event took place. some 9000 odd years ago.
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Bill Howell
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The timing, 9,200 years Before Present (yBP) is interesting, in that it differs somewhat from timing of the 11-12 kyBP North American mammalian extinction event (is culture etc etc) if remember correctly. Ben Davidson (Suspicious Observer) has for years been profiling work showing might be a 12ky cycle, with harmonics (6ky, 3ky, with an event 9.2 kyBP possibly fitting?) Low solar magnetic fields in minima lead to higher galactic/cosmic rays on Earth (like Star Trek shields go down). Many others have worked over the decades on data that may be related to the 12 ky cycle, and Ben Davidson has videos that explain it well, plus offer a “solar micro-nova” mechanism, although of course there can be many proposed mechanism, that doesn’t affect the basic cycle data but may help point the way to more data.
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