re: "...The huge September 1859 solar flare appears to have gushed 6.5 times the protons of the largest flare seen by modern science — which was in 1989. By modeling the space storm using nitrate data from the ice — compared with the modern event also detectable in the ice — the researchers estimate that more than three times as much ozone was destroyed by the 1859 event than in the 1989 blast. / The discovery is a hint at just how nasty the solar weather can get. Ozone is the gas that blocks ultraviolet-B (UV-B) light, which is particularly lethal to many life forms. / "The flare itself was observed directly," said researcher Brian Thomas of Washburn University in Kansas of the event. The flare was followed by a historic aurora light show and a geomagnetic storm that caused telegraph lines to spark and start fires. /In some places power surges created by the storm of charged solar particles blasting Earth’s magnetic field made it possible to operate telegraph systems without any added power, explains space weather forecaster Ron Zwickl, deputy director of NOAA’s Space Environment Center in Colorado..."...
hat tip: Brothers Judd
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