Research Addresses 1840s Space Weather Events

<p>The Carrington Event of 1859 is recognized as the first extreme space weather event, but reports indicate minor disturbances to telegraph equipment during geomagnetic storms as early as the late 1840s. In 2013, researchers found an anonymous report published in 1871 in Nature that described a "very intense magnetic disturbance" affecting rail travel in Exeter, England, in October 1841. A recent paper published in the journal Space Weather suggests that the 1841 date is likely a typo, and that the actual railway disruption occurred several years later.</p><p>Co-author Jim Wild from Lancaster University stated, "Space weather is often discussed as a modern challenge because of our dependence on technologies such as satellites, communications systems and electricity networks. What this study shows is that society has been experiencing the effects of space weather on technology for almost as long as electrical technologies have existed. The Exeter train delay is a fascinating story because it sits right at the point where emerging technologies first began to encounter the realities of the space environment."</p><p>The Carrington Event remains the most powerful geomagnetic storm recorded, producing strong auroral displays worldwide and causing sparking and fires in telegraph stations. Some auroras were bright enough for people to read newspapers by their light. At that time, the telegraph was a relatively new technology, having emerged in the 1830s, and geomagnetically induced currents from a likely coronal mass ejection from the Sun disrupted telegraph systems. Some operators reported being able to transmit and receive messages even after disconnecting the power supply, relying solely on the auroral current.</p>