{"id":283698,"date":"2023-10-17T18:38:37","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T16:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=283698"},"modified":"2023-10-17T18:38:41","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T16:38:41","slug":"tree-rings-reveal-largest-solar-storm-evah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=283698","title":{"rendered":"Tree Rings Reveal Largest Solar Storm EVAH!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Big sun eruption – Elements of this image furnished by NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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The largest known\u00a0solar storm<\/a>\u00a0struck Earth more than 14,000 years ago, according to a new study of the growth rings in ancient trees. Why it matters:\u00a0The discovery illustrates the immense power of\u00a0solar storms<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 and underscores the danger they pose today.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tree rings of a buried subfossil tree in the Drouzet River in the Southern French Alps. Photo Credit: C\u00e9cile Miramont<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guest \u201cWell, the largest yet identified,\u201d by David Middleton<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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NEWS RELEASE 9-OCT-2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers identify largest ever solar storm\u202fin ancient 14,300-year-old tree rings<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Peer-Reviewed Publication<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An international team of scientists have discovered a huge spike in radiocarbon levels 14,300 years ago by analysing ancient tree-rings found in the French Alps. \u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The radiocarbon spike was caused by a massive solar storm, the biggest ever identified.\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A similar solar storm today would be catastrophic for modern technological society \u2013 potentially wiping out telecommunications and satellite systems, causing massive electricity grid blackouts, and costing us billions of pounds.\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The academics are warning of the importance of understanding such storms to protect our global communications and energy infrastructure for the future.\u202f\u202f\u202f\u202f\u202f\u202f \u202f\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The collaborative research, which was carried out by an international team of scientists, is published today (Oct 9) in The Royal Society\u2019s Philosophical Transactions A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences and reveals new insights into the Sun\u2019s extreme behaviour and the risks it poses to Earth. \u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[\u2026]Eureka Alert<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The paper (Bard et al., 2023<\/a>) is worth reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Myake Events<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Such massive solar storms, are known as Myake Events<\/a> and were unknown to science before 2012. As many as eight additional such solar storms have been identified over the past 15,000 years. The 14.3 kya<\/a> event would be the most powerful yet identified. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The discovery of the 774 CE spike fostered new\u00a014<\/sup>C measurement programmes on tree ring series from the Holocene at annual resolution. This is an enormous task since, before this discovery, tree-ring calibration had mainly been based on\u00a014<\/sup>C ages measured on decadal wood sections. So far, four SEP spikes have been evidenced with multiple cosmogenic isotopes, 774 CE (1176\u2009Cal\u2009BP), 993 CE (957\u2009Cal\u2009BP), 2610\u2009Cal\u2009BP, 9125\u2009Cal\u2009BP) and a few others have been proposed based solely on\u00a014<\/sup>C, 1052 CE (898\u2009Cal\u2009BP), 1279 CE (672\u2009Cal\u2009BP), 7210\u2009Cal\u2009BP, 7360\u2009Cal\u2009BP [17<\/a>].Bard et al., 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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The 1859 Carrington Event<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The largest, directly-observed, solar storm occurred in 1859 and is known as the Carrington Event. It caused massive disruption on Earth \u2013 destroying telegraph machines and creating a night-time aurora so bright that birds began to sing, believing the Sun had begun to rise. However, the Miyake Events (including the newly discovered 14,300-yr-old storm) would have been a staggering entire order-of-magnitude greater in size.\u202f Eureka Alert<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As disruptive as the Carrington Event was, Myake Events are an order of magnitude larger than the 1859 Carrington Event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Greenhouse Gas Emissions vs Solar Storms<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A repeat of the Carrington Event would be truly catastrophic to our modern, technology-dependent, society. A Myake Event might actually be an existential threat to life as we know it\u2026. Yet\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bard, a climate scientist at Coll\u00e8ge de France and CEREGE, said learning about the sun\u2019s past behavior is important for forecasting future solar storms, but also for understanding the sun\u2019s impact on Earth\u2019s climate. The sun\u2019s effect on Earth\u2019s climate is not as large as warming from greenhouse gas emissions, but it is a factor to consider in climate models.The Washington Post<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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