Carrington Event - Geomagnetic Storm of 1859.

On 28th of August, 1859, in the night the skies around the globe lit up with spectacular displays of light. In few places the sky glowed red as if it were  reflecting a huge wildfire. For almost a week skies around the globe illuminated so brightly that it was possible to read a newspaper at even at midnight. Everywhere, people gathered and gazed the sky, terrified and  in equal measure. The major chunk of people had no clue of what they were witnessing, and could only assume that it was a portent of the end of the world. Reports exist from many different countries of the strange phenomena that could be seen during the whole week which followed the 28th of August, 1859. In Boston, the sky glowed red to such a degree that many who witnessed it believed that there was a fire burning over the horizon, at least until the red transmuted to a vivid green. The effect was almost bewildering, and was witnessed with mingled feelings of awe and delight by thousands. At the same time as the heavenly light show was sending the general population into a frenzy of fear and wonder, telegraph operators around the world were also experiencing bizarre and unexpected difficulties. Something was wrong with their equipment. In some places telegraph operators received electric shocks and burns when they touched their telegraph keys, or witnessed sparks and arcing from telegraph wires. Elsewhere operators discovered, much to their surprise, that they could unhook their batteries and still continue to transmit messages. Operators on the American Telegraph Line between Boston and Portland,   after briefly marveling that they could work without batteries, went about their business sending the messages of the day as normal, batteries disconnected. Newspapers during the week of the event were dominated by accounts of the lights in the sky, and the disruption of the telegraph system. In some cases this was all that could be printed, since interruption of telegraph   services meant that no news dispatches from the wider world had come in. All in all these events defied explanation, leaving many to speculate that they were signs of the coming apocalypse. The actual explanation was rather less catastrophic, and would be uncovered by the report of a British amateur astronomer Richard Carrington. On the 1st of September, 1859, he was in his private observatory on his estate just outside London, busily monitoring sunspots. Sunspots are dark patches often seen on the surface of the sun, and Carrington had devoted a great deal of time to tracking their movements as he believed that their importance was only just beginning to be understood. While he was busy with his work, Carrington witnessed something unusual: two patches of intense white light appeared on the surface of the sun, flared briefly, and then disappeared. Intrigued, Carrington made a drawing to capture his observations - something he would later send to the Royal Astronomical Society as part of a complete report. Although he didn't know it at the time, Carrington had just witnessed two in a series of solar flares. Solar flares are violent events on the surface of the sun, which are almost always accompanied by the ejection of a huge quantity of energetic particles. Of course the sun constantly emits a solar wind of such particles. Usually we are completely protected from these by the Earth's own magnetic field. 

This field stops radiation from the solar wind from harming us, and prevents it from degrading the atmosphere. Only a tiny amount of the material delivered by solar winds can penetrate our atmosphere. Due to the orientation of the Earth's magnetic field, this is most likely to happen at the North and South poles - something which results in the phenomenon we know as Aurora Borealis, or the Northern Lights. During solar flares, the sun releases much more material than usual: a huge belch of magnetized plasma. When this is directed towards the Earth then Aurora Borealis ( it is caused when high energy particles enter the atmosphere and collides with oxygen and nitrogen atoms which excite the electrons present in them which de-excites to release energy in various spectrums but the one which causes beautiful abstract painting on sky is caused due to the visible spectrum as human eye can see only lights of wavelength 350 nm to 700nm) becomes visible far beyond the poles. The solar flares witnessed by Carrington had just sent another massive dose of magnetized plasma on its way towards Earth. That evening, the terrifying and inspiring lights in the sky would be seen again around the world. It would be some time, of course, before Carrington's report allowed the flares and the bizarre activity in the skies to be linked. When they finally were, it was decided that the event should be named in his honor: The Carrington Event. Carrington would have every reason to be pleased to be remembered in such a way. After all, the Carrington Event made headlines around the world, and while it caused some disruption it was far from deadly.

 At that time it must have seemed a bizarre but momentous scientific discovery - not something that would pose any real danger to the world at large. The significance of the Carrington Event, however, should not be missed. In 1859, electrical technology was relatively basic, with the telegraph system the only piece of technology in widespread use that was reliant on electrical power. Since then much more of the world's infrastructure has come to be dependent on electricity. Which begs the question: what would happen should a Carrington-level event occur today? Unlike in 1859, it's fairly likely that we'd have some warning when a geomagnetic storm might affect the Earth. Systems currently in place should allow us at least one full day to prepare, and the long-term effects of the event would be very much dependent on that preparation. A quick and coordinated response would involve taking any systems that might be damaged by the event offline for its duration. In this best case scenario, then, a Carrington-level event would mean a week of severe disruption the world over but only a week. On the other hand, there is the worst case scenario wherein we fail to prepare, or where we don't have sufficient warning of an incoming Carrington-level event. This would result in some of the most extensive blackouts ever seen: a simultaneous loss of power, loss of communications, and the failure of most modern technology. Planes would be grounded, hospitals left in the dark, traffic control in cities absent. Card-based transactions would be impossible, refrigeration would fail, banking services would be offline, supply chains would crumble. The world at large could be thrown back hundreds of years in terms of technology and this wouldn't necessarily be just for the duration of the event. If power grids were not taken offline to protect them before the event, permanent   damage could be caused. Given the scale of some power grids, experts estimate that it could take as long as 10 years to completely recover from a worst-case scenario Carrington-level event. Finally, it should also be stressed that it really isn't a question of if, but when. Estimates vary, but it is thought by many that a Carrington-level event might strike the Earth on average once every 150 years.