Some telegraph stations that used chemicals to mark sheets reported that powerful surges caused the telegraph paper to combust. Some reports mentioned telegraphs that were able to send messages without being plugged in and some that received nonsense messages that nobody had sent-because the atmosphere was so charged. The following day, strange things started happening the northern lights were seen farther south than ever recorded before, and telegraph operators reported getting shocked by their equipment and seeing arcs of electricity sparking due to the powerful electric currents flowing through the wires. NOAA studies the Sun so that we can better understand and forecast solar activity with the aim of mitigating potential issues like these in the future.Īstronomers Richard Carrington and Richard Hodgson independently observed patches of intensely bright light on the solar surface shortly before the Earth was hit by a very strong solar storm. The list below describes some of the more notable instances when this has occurred and their effects.

When this activity ramps up, sometimes phenomena such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), where massive amounts of radiation and solar particles erupt out from the Sun’s surface, can wreak havoc if our planet happens to be in the way of the blast. Over the course of the Sun’s 11-year solar cycle, the star goes through a period of increased and decreased activity.

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