The Carrington Event: A 19th-Century Solar Superstorm and the 21st-Century Threat to Global Infrastructure

History shows The Carrington Event of September 1-2, 1859, stands as the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history, a benchmark against which all other space weather events are measured. Triggered by a massive solar flare and an exceptionally rapid Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), the storm unleashed a torrent of energy upon Earth, producing spectacular auroral displays visible from the poles to the tropics and inducing powerful electrical currents that crippled the nascent global telegraph network. While in 1859 its impacts were a source of scientific curiosity, awe, and limited technological disruption, a recurrence of such an event today would pose a catastrophic threat to the foundational pillars of modern civilization.

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Carrington Event, its scientific underpinnings, and its profound implications for the 21st century. It begins by recounting the serendipitous discovery by astronomers Richard Carrington and Richard Hodgson, which for the first time forged the scientific link between solar activity and terrestrial geophysical phenomena, giving birth to the field of space weather. It then deconstructs the anatomy of the superstorm, explaining the physics of the solar flare, the unique dynamics that allowed its associated CME to traverse interplanetary space in a record 17.6 hours, and the resulting severe geomagnetic disturbance that enveloped the planet.

Drawing on extensive historical eyewitness accounts, the report paints a vivid picture of the storm's impact in 1859, from the "blood red" auroras that turned night into day to the telegraph systems that sparked, shocked operators, and caught fire. By contextualizing the Carrington Event against other major storms—including the 1989 Quebec blackout and the prehistoric, more powerful "Miyake Events"—it demonstrates that our technological vulnerability is a moving target and that the 1859 storm, while extreme, does not represent the physical upper limit of solar activity.

The core of this analysis written by author, James Dean focuses on the vulnerability of today's deeply interconnected, technology-dependent infrastructure. A Carrington-level event would trigger a multi-domain crisis, inducing geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) capable of causing a cascading collapse of electrical power grids on a global scale, potentially leading to continental blackouts lasting weeks, months, or even years. The storm would inflict severe damage on the global satellite fleet through radiation, electrostatic discharge, and atmospheric drag, crippling communication, navigation (GPS), and Earth observation systems. It would also threaten the integrity of the global internet by damaging the vulnerable undersea cables that form its backbone.

"Today, the prospect of a  catastrophic event still exists, like the phenomenon which occurred in 1859, known as The Carrington Event. Such a global crisis could occur when the sun emits super powerful flare or solar storms that drive tremendous electromagnetic energy across vast distances knocking-out nearly all electronic communications, energy grids, cables, transformers, mobile and wireless networks on Earth. This happening can lead to continent-wide blackouts lasting for weeks, months, or even years. Moreover, today the critical energy grid transformers of which about 30 that exist in America are custom-built, weigh hundreds of tons, and have a manufacturing lead time of 1-2 years each. Without proper leadership and investment, a Carrington Event scale phenomenon will instantly take-down much of the current global financial, healthcare, water, food supply, sanitation, defense, manufacturing, maritime GPS, education and roadways infrastructure systems. The chance of a severe solar flare and/or powerful solar storms like The Carrington Event occurring at any given time is between 12% to 15% annually with an estimated full recovery period of  4 - 10 years. The effects would be at minimum 20x worse than Hurricane Katrina on an economic scale in the United States, and likely cost trillions of dollars to recover.  Further, a Carrington-level global event today would lead to a massive humanitarian crisis directly impacting hundreds of millions, potentially even billions, of people. The primary impact wouldn't be from the solar flare itself, but from the catastrophic failure of the electrical grids and technology networks our modern society is built upon. But very little attention or investment money is being spent to harden the core systems we rely on everyday, and U.S. political leadership is mostly oblivious to this peril, and has failed to act in preparation for this inevitable catastrophic event. "  (author, James Dean - September 5, 2025) 

This report concludes by examining current mitigation and preparedness strategies, from advances in space weather forecasting to the engineering solutions available to harden critical infrastructure and the national and international policy frameworks designed to coordinate a response. It finds a significant "preparedness paradox": a disconnect between the catastrophic scale of the threat and the current level of investment in resilience, driven by the moderate probability of such an event that some calculate around 12% to 15% annually. But still this scary global scale phenomenon exists, and yet no one is talking about it. 

Ultimately, the Carrington Event serves as a stark reminder that while the threat is astronomical in origin, our vulnerability is a direct consequence of the complex technological society we have built. Forging a resilient future requires a sustained, strategic, and international commitment to understanding, preparing for, and mitigating the effects of living with our star.

The Great Solar Superstorm of 1859: A Serendipitous Discovery

The Great Geomagnetic Storm of 1859 was more than a powerful natural phenomenon; it was a pivotal moment in the history of science that fundamentally altered humanity's understanding of the Sun and its dynamic relationship with Earth. Before this event, phenomena like the aurora borealis and fluctuations in the planet's magnetic field were considered purely terrestrial in origin, their ultimate cause a subject of intense debate. The events of September 1, 1859, and the days that followed, provided the first undeniable evidence of a direct, causal link between an eruption on the Sun and profound geophysical effects on Earth, thereby establishing the foundations for the modern field of solar-terrestrial physics, or "space weather."

The Dawn of Solar-Terrestrial Physics: Carrington, Hodgson, and the First Observed Flare

The discovery began not with a premonition of a global storm, but with the mundane, meticulous work of data collection. On the morning of Thursday, September 1, 1859, Richard Carrington, a wealthy and respected English amateur astronomer, was in his private observatory at his country estate in Redhill, near London. Carrington was well-regarded in the scientific community, having recently been awarded a gold medal by the Royal Astronomical Society for his catalog of circumpolar stars, and he had turned his disciplined attention to observing and sketching the dark spots on the Sun's surface.

At 11:18 GMT, while projecting the Sun's image onto a glass plate to draw a particularly large group of sunspots that had been visible for days, he was "suddenly surprised" by an extraordinary sight. As he later reported to the Royal Astronomical Society, "two patches of intensely bright and white light broke out" from the sunspot cluster. The brilliance was unprecedented, described by Carrington as "fully equal to that of direct Sun light" and "most dazzling to the protected eye". His first thought was that a ray of unfiltered sunlight had penetrated a hole in the screen of his apparatus, a testament to how unbelievable the observation was.

The fleeting nature of the event underscored the serendipity of the discovery. Realizing he was witnessing a genuine solar phenomenon, Carrington, "somewhat flurried by the surprise," hastily ran to call someone to witness the spectacle with him. Upon returning within sixty seconds, he was "mortified to find that it was already much changed and enfeebled". In total, the entire eruption was visible for only five minutes before it vanished completely.

Crucially, Carrington was not the only observer. Richard Hodgson, another English amateur astronomer, independently witnessed and recorded the same "white light flare" from his own observatory. In an era before instant communication and modern peer review, this independent corroboration was vital. It transformed a singular, potentially dismissible anomaly into a verifiable scientific event, lending immense credibility to the observation and confirming the flare's extreme brightness and brief duration. This was the first time in history that a solar flare had ever been knowingly observed and recorded by humans.

Connecting the Dots: From a Flash on the Sun to a Storm on Earth

While the visual observation was historic, the true scientific breakthrough came from connecting this solar event to its terrestrial consequences. The first piece of evidence emerged almost instantaneously. Balfour Stewart, the head of the Kew Observatory in London, later compared his institution's continuous magnetometer readings with the time of Carrington's observation. He found that at the exact moment the flare was seen, the magnetometer recorded a distinct, small, and abrupt disturbance in Earth's magnetic field. This phenomenon, now known as a "magnetic crochet" or Solar Flare Effect (SFE), provided the first instrumental proof of an immediate physical connection between an event on the Sun and Earth's magnetic environment. 

Armed with this corroborating data, Carrington suspected a solar-terrestrial link. Though he famously and cautiously wrote that "one swallow does not make a summer," his hypothesis was a revolutionary intellectual leap. It posited a direct cause-and-effect relationship, moving beyond the mere cataloging of sunspots to suggest the Sun as a dynamic agent capable of influencing Earth's fundamental physical systems. 

The definitive confirmation of this hypothesis arrived with overwhelming force approximately 17 to 18 hours later. A massive geomagnetic storm, arguably the largest ever recorded, engulfed the planet, triggering the spectacular global events detailed in the following sections. The connection was so apparent that it was quickly accepted by the scientific community. The compilation of worldwide reports on the storm's effects by the American mathematician Elias Loomis provided a global dataset that solidified the link between the flare observed by Carrington and Hodgson, the magnetic crochet recorded by Stewart, and the subsequent planetary-scale storm. The paradigm had shifted. As the Scientific American declared on October 15, 1859, "a connection between the northern lights and forces of electricity and magnetism is now fully established". The observation of a fleeting flash of light had given birth to a new scientific discipline.

Anatomy of a Solar Superstorm: The Science of the Carrington Event

The Carrington Event was the product of a complex chain of physical processes originating in the Sun's turbulent magnetic interior and culminating in a violent collision with Earth's magnetosphere. Its extreme intensity can be attributed to a confluence of factors: a powerful solar flare originating from a large sunspot group, an associated Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) of immense size and speed, and favorable conditions in interplanetary space that allowed this CME to travel to Earth with unprecedented velocity. Understanding these components is essential to grasping the nature of the threat such an event poses.

From Sunspot to Superflare: The Physics of Magnetic Energy Release

The ultimate driver of the Carrington Event was the Sun's magnetic field. The Sun undergoes a roughly 11-year cycle of activity, during which its global magnetic poles flip. This process is accompanied by periods of intense surface activity, known as solar maximum, characterized by a proliferation of sunspots. The Carrington Event occurred in September 1859, just a few months before the solar maximum of its cycle. 

Sunspots are not mere blemishes; they are vast, complex regions in the Sun's photosphere where magnetic fields, thousands of times stronger than Earth's, become tangled and contorted. These tangled magnetic field lines store enormous amounts of potential energy. When these lines suddenly and violently reconfigure—a process known as magnetic reconnection—this stored energy is explosively released. This release manifests in two primary, though distinct, phenomena: solar flares and CMEs.

A solar flare is an intense, localized burst of electromagnetic radiation, primarily X-rays and extreme ultraviolet light, that travels at the speed of light. The flare observed by Carrington and Hodgson was a "white light flare," a class so energetic that its emission is visible across the entire optical spectrum, making it observable with standard telescopes—an exceptionally rare occurrence. Modern analysis, based on the magnitude of the associated magnetic crochet, estimates the flare's soft X-ray (SXR) classification to be in the range of X45 (±5). For comparison, the most powerful flares of the modern space age are typically in the X10 to X20 range. The energy released by the Carrington flare has been estimated to be equivalent to 10 billion atomic bombs. 

Often, but not always, this same magnetic reconnection event also powers a CME, which is a far more consequential phenomenon for Earth. A CME is the physical expulsion of a colossal cloud of plasma—billions of tons of protons and electrons—and the embedded magnetic field (known as a magnetic flux rope) from the Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona.1 While the flare's radiation reaches Earth in just over eight minutes, this massive cloud of magnetized matter travels much more slowly, carrying the bulk of the storm's energy across the solar system.

The Interplanetary Shockwave: Unpacking the Unprecedented 17.6-Hour CME Transit

A defining characteristic of the Carrington Event, and a primary reason for its severity, was the extraordinary speed of its associated CME. The plasma cloud traversed the 93 million-mile (150 million-kilometer) distance from the Sun to Earth in a mere 17.6 hours. This transit time is exceptionally short; typical CMEs take two to four days (48-96 hours) to arrive, and even those considered "fast" often take more than 24 hours. This extreme velocity is a critical factor, as the kinetic energy delivered by a CME upon impact is proportional to the square of its speed, meaning a CME traveling four times faster than average delivers sixteen times the energy. 

The leading scientific explanation for this remarkable speed is the "cleared path" hypothesis. The interplanetary space between the Sun and Earth is not empty; it is filled with the ambient solar wind, a constant stream of slower-moving plasma that creates a form of drag, decelerating CMEs as they propagate outwards. However, the Carrington flare was preceded by another significant solar eruption. This earlier event was responsible for the major auroral storm observed globally on August 28-29, a few days before Carrington's observation. It is theorized that the CME from this first event acted like a snowplow, sweeping the ambient solar wind plasma out of the way. 

When the second, more powerful CME erupted on September 1, it traveled through this rarefied, low-density wake. With significantly reduced drag, it was able to maintain a much higher proportion of its initial eruption velocity throughout its journey to Earth. This "one-two punch" dynamic, where a preceding CME primes the interplanetary environment for a subsequent, faster one, is now recognized as a key mechanism for producing extreme space weather events. The Carrington Event remains the archetypal example of this force-multiplying phenomenon, demonstrating that the timing and interaction of successive solar events can be as important as the power of a single eruption.

Earth's Magnetic Shield Under Siege: The Resulting Geomagnetic Disturbance

When the super-fast Carrington CME finally reached Earth, it delivered a devastating blow to the planet's magnetic shield, the magnetosphere. The magnetosphere, generated by Earth's molten iron core, normally deflects the solar wind and protects the surface from harmful cosmic radiation. The arrival of the CME on September 2, 1859, triggered a geomagnetic storm of unparalleled intensity.

The storm began with a powerful shockwave that violently compressed the sunward side of the magnetosphere. The immense kinetic energy and density of the CME plasma overwhelmed the magnetic field's ability to stand it off. The severity of the subsequent storm was likely amplified by the orientation of the CME's embedded magnetic field. If a CME's magnetic field is oriented southward—opposite to the northward direction of Earth's magnetosphere at its sunward point—a process called magnetic reconnection can occur on a massive scale. This process efficiently peels back Earth's magnetic field lines and funnels vast amounts of energy and charged particles directly into the upper atmosphere, particularly over the polar regions.

This massive energy injection supercharged the planet's natural electrical systems, driving powerful ionospheric currents and expanding the auroral ovals dramatically from the poles toward the equator. It also induced intense electrical currents on Earth's surface, known as geomagnetically induced currents (GICs). The intensity of a geomagnetic storm is often measured by the Disturbance storm time (Dst) index, which quantifies the decrease in Earth's horizontal magnetic field strength. While direct measurements from 1859 are limited, modern reconstructions estimate the Carrington Event's peak Dst index was between approximately -800 nanoteslas (nT) and -1,760 nT.20 For comparison, the powerful March 1989 storm that caused the Quebec blackout registered a peak Dst of -589 nT, while the intense May 2024 storm peaked around -412 nT. The Carrington Event was, by a significant margin, in a class of its own.

A World Bathed in Light and Fire: The Global Impact in 1859

The collision of the Carrington CME with Earth's magnetosphere unleashed a planetary-scale spectacle of light and electromagnetic chaos. For the inhabitants of the mid-19th century world, the storm manifested in two primary ways: celestial displays of breathtaking beauty and terrifying intensity, and the catastrophic failure of their most advanced technology, the global telegraph network. The wealth of eyewitness accounts from newspapers, scientific journals, and ship logs provides a vivid, qualitative measure of the storm's immense power.

The Celestial Spectacle: Auroras from the Tropics to the Poles

The most visible and widespread effect of the Carrington Event was the generation of auroras of unprecedented geographic reach and brilliance. The massive influx of solar particles into the magnetosphere caused the auroral ovals, normally confined to high-latitude regions, to expand dramatically towards the equator. As a result, the aurora borealis (northern lights) was witnessed as far south as Cuba, Jamaica, Venezuela, the Caribbean, and Hawaii, while the aurora australis (southern lights) was reported as far north as Santiago, Chile—locations where such phenomena are almost never seen.1

The descriptions from the time are filled with a mixture of awe and fear. The dominant color reported globally was a deep, ominous red, frequently described as "blood red" or "deep crimson," leading many observers to a common, terrifying conclusion: a massive fire must be raging just over the horizon. A report from the

San Francisco Herald captured the mood: "The appearance now is positively awful. The red glare is over houses, streets, and fields, and the most dreadful of conflagrations could not cast a deeper hue abroad". 

The displays were not static but dynamic and complex. Eyewitnesses described "vivid arrows of light" and "fantastic spires" shooting up toward the zenith, a sky that undulated "like a field of grain in a high wind," and great "curtains or wings of dazzling beauty". A woman on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, wrote that the sea reflected the blood-red sky, and "no one could look at it without thinking of the passage in the Bible which says, 'the sea was turned to blood'". 

The sheer luminosity of the aurora was perhaps its most astonishing feature. Multiple accounts from across the United States and Europe reported that the sky became so bright that night was effectively turned into day. The New York Times reported on September 3, 1859, that "at about one o'clock [in the morning] ordinary print could be read by the light". This extraordinary brightness had tangible effects on daily life and the natural world. In the Rocky Mountains, gold miners were roused from their sleep at 1 a.m. by the intense light, and assuming it was dawn, began to prepare breakfast. Elsewhere, the light was bright enough to awaken birds, which began their morning songs in the middle of the night. These anecdotes provide a powerful, relatable metric for the immense energy being deposited into Earth's upper atmosphere. The public reaction was a mix of wonder at the "heavenly pyrotechnics" and a deep-seated fear that the "end of the world was at hand". 

The Victorian Internet Goes Haywire: Telegraph System Collapse and "Auroral Current"

While the public gazed at the sky in wonder, the storm was wreaking havoc on the most advanced technological system of the era: the global telegraph network. This "Victorian Internet," comprising approximately 125,000 miles of iron wires strung across continents and under oceans, acted as a vast, inadvertent antenna for the storm's electromagnetic fury. The intense fluctuations of the geomagnetic field induced powerful, uncontrolled direct currents—GICs—in these long conducting wires, with dramatic and dangerous consequences. 

The global network was thrown into chaos. Telegraph communications across Europe and North America failed catastrophically. The induced currents were so strong that they overwhelmed the primitive electrical systems. Telegraph operators reported receiving severe electric shocks from their equipment. In Washington, D.C., an operator named Frederick W. Royce was badly shocked when his forehead grazed a ground wire, with a witness describing "an arc of fire" jumping from his head to the telegraphic equipment. The excess voltage caused sparks to shower from the machinery, and in several documented cases, the powerful surges were sufficient to set the chemically-treated telegraph paper ablaze, leading to fires in telegraph offices. Some machines began spewing gibberish or transmitting nonsensical messages, as if "possessed by demons". 

Perhaps the most scientifically significant effect was the phenomenon that came to be known as the "auroral current." The GICs flowing through the wires were so powerful that they could operate the telegraphs independently. In a now-famous example, telegraph operators on the American Telegraph Company line between Boston, Massachusetts, and Portland, Maine, discovered they could disconnect their batteries entirely and continue to transmit messages for two hours, powered solely by the current induced by the aurora. An operator in Boston messaged Portland, "Cut off your battery and work with the auroral current." The reply came back clear: "Better than with our batteries on". This was not merely a curious anomaly; it was a direct, practical demonstration of the immense electrical power being generated by the storm. The telegraph system, a symbol of human ingenuity and control, had been co-opted by a force of nature, serving as a stark preview of the vulnerability of all large-scale electrical infrastructure to the power of the Sun.

Benchmarking the Extreme: The Carrington Event in Context

To fully appreciate the modern threat posed by the Carrington Event, its magnitude must be benchmarked against other significant space weather events. This comparative analysis reveals two critical truths: first, that the societal impact of a solar storm is not solely a function of its raw power but is intimately tied to the specific technological vulnerabilities of the era; and second, that while the 1859 storm was extreme, paleoclimatic evidence shows that it does not represent the physical upper limit of what the Sun is capable of producing.

Modern Counterparts: Gauging Vulnerability Through Lesser Storms

Since 1859, Earth has experienced several notable geomagnetic storms. While none have matched the Carrington Event's overall intensity, they serve as invaluable case studies, each highlighting the evolving nature of our technological dependence.

The May 1921 "New York Railroad Storm": Occurring during Solar Cycle 15, this superstorm is the closest modern analogue to the Carrington Event in terms of intensity. With an estimated peak Dst of -907 nT, it falls squarely within the lower range of estimates for the 1859 storm. The impacts were similar in character to 1859 but affected a more advanced technological landscape. Widespread disruptions occurred on the global telegraph and telephone networks, and induced currents were powerful enough to spark fires, including one in a control tower at New York's Grand Central Terminal, giving the storm its name. Analysis indicates its ground currents were up to an order of magnitude greater than those of the 1989 storm. This event is a crucial benchmark, demonstrating that Carrington-level intensity is a recurring phenomenon, not a singular anomaly.

The March 1989 Quebec Blackout: This event represents a turning point in the modern understanding of space weather risk. The storm itself was significantly weaker than Carrington, with a peak Dst of -589 nT, roughly one-third to one-half the intensity. However, its impact was arguably more societally disruptive. On March 13, 1989, GICs induced by the storm saturated transformers in the Hydro-Québec power grid. The system's protective relays tripped, and in less than 90 seconds, the entire provincial grid collapsed, plunging six million people into darkness for nine hours, with some areas experiencing outages for days. This was the first time a solar storm's primary impact was the large-scale failure of a modern electrical grid. It highlighted the particular vulnerability of grids that are located at high latitudes and utilize long transmission lines, both of which are features that enhance the collection of GICs.

The Halloween Storms (October 2003): This period of intense solar activity involved a series of powerful flares and CMEs that, while not causing a grid collapse on the scale of Quebec, had a profound impact on space-based assets. The storms triggered a power outage in Malmö, Sweden, but their most notable effect was on the global satellite fleet. An estimated 59% of NASA's space science missions experienced anomalies, from temporary outages to data loss, and one Japanese satellite was lost completely. This event underscored the rapidly growing dependence on and vulnerability of our orbital infrastructure.

The May 2024 Geomagnetic Storm: The strongest storm of Solar Cycle 25 and the most intense of the 21st century to date, this G5-level event provided a modern "stress test" for our current infrastructure. It produced spectacular auroras visible at unusually low latitudes and caused some minor, localized disruptions to power grids. Its most significant impact was on systems reliant on the Global Navigation Satellite System (GPS). Farmers across North America reported that their GPS-guided tractors, which require centimeter-level precision for planting, were idled by signal disruptions. This event served as a clear warning that even a storm far weaker than Carrington can have significant economic consequences by disrupting the highly precise digital systems that underpin modern industries.

Echoes from the Past: Miyake Events and the Prehistoric Record

For decades, the Carrington Event was considered the "perfect storm," a plausible worst-case scenario for infrastructure planning. However, groundbreaking research in dendrochronology and isotope analysis has revealed that Earth has been struck by solar storms far more powerful in its prehistoric past. These discoveries have been made by measuring the concentration of the radioactive isotope Carbon-14 (14C) in the annual growth rings of ancient trees. 

Extreme Solar Particle Events (ESPEs), which are associated with the most powerful solar eruptions, bombard Earth's upper atmosphere with high-energy protons. These particles trigger a nuclear cascade that produces neutrons, which in turn convert atmospheric nitrogen (14N) into Carbon-14 (14C).28 This excess

14C is then absorbed by living organisms, including trees, leaving a distinct, measurable spike in the tree ring corresponding to the year of the event.

Using this technique, a team led by Japanese scientist Fusa Miyake first identified a massive 14C spike in the year 774-775 CE.7 Analysis of this "Miyake Event" from tree rings around the globe indicates it was caused by a solar storm an order of magnitude more powerful than the Carrington Event—perhaps 10 to 20 times stronger. Subsequent research has identified other, similar events, including one in 993-994 CE and evidence from ice cores of a potentially even larger event in 7176 BCE. 

The existence of these Miyake Events fundamentally recalibrates the risk landscape. They prove that the Sun is capable of producing energy releases that dwarf the 1859 storm. While a Carrington-level event remains the benchmark for which modern society is trying, and largely failing, to prepare, these prehistoric super-storms represent a more extreme, lower-probability class of hazard. The consequences of a Miyake-class event striking modern civilization are difficult to fully comprehend but would be nothing short of catastrophic, potentially crippling global infrastructure for years or even decades. 

The following table provides a comparative summary of these key geomagnetic storms, illustrating the relationship between storm intensity and the nature of its technological impact. This juxtaposition makes clear that as our critical infrastructure has evolved—from telegraphs to power grids to satellites—so too has the nature of our vulnerability to space weather.

The Modern Sword of Damocles: Vulnerability of 21st-Century Infrastructure

A geomagnetic storm with the intensity of the Carrington Event would be a catastrophic, civilization-altering disaster if it were to occur today. In 1859, the storm's primary technological victim was the telegraph. In the 21st century, the targets are the foundational pillars of modern society: the electrical power grid, the global satellite constellations that provide communication and navigation, the internet, and the transportation networks that depend on them all. The most profound threat lies not in the failure of any single system, but in the simultaneous, cascading collapse of these deeply interdependent infrastructures.

The Fragile Grid: Geomagnetically Induced Currents and the Threat of Continental Blackout

The single greatest threat to terrestrial infrastructure from a Carrington-level event is the potential for a widespread, long-duration collapse of the electrical power grid. The mechanism for this failure is the same one that powered the telegraphs in 1859: geomagnetically induced currents (GICs). 

During a severe geomagnetic storm, rapid fluctuations in Earth's magnetic field induce a powerful, low-frequency (quasi-DC) electric field on the planet's surface. This field drives GICs along any long electrical conductor, with modern extra-high-voltage (EHV) transmission lines being exceptionally efficient collectors. These currents flow through the transmission lines and seek a path to ground, which they find through the grounded neutral connections of large power transformers at electrical substations. 

This injection of DC-like current is disastrous for transformers, which are designed to operate exclusively on alternating current (AC). The GIC drives the transformer's magnetic core into saturation, a state where it can no longer efficiently contain the magnetic flux. This has two immediate, damaging consequences. First, leakage of magnetic flux into the transformer's structural components induces intense eddy currents, causing rapid, extreme overheating that can physically damage or destroy the transformer's internal windings. Second, core saturation severely distorts the AC waveform, generating high levels of harmonic currents that are injected back into the grid. 

These harmonic distortions can trigger a cascading failure. Protective relays elsewhere in the grid, misinterpreting the distorted waveforms as a fault, can trip incorrectly, disconnecting perfectly functional lines and generators from the system. This rapid, unplanned loss of generation and transmission capacity can lead to voltage instability and a full-scale grid collapse, as occurred in Quebec in 1989. 

The recovery from such a collapse would be dangerously slow. EHV transformers are massive, custom-built pieces of equipment that weigh hundreds of tons. They are not easily repaired and have manufacturing and delivery lead times of many months to over a year. A Carrington-level event could potentially damage or destroy hundreds of these critical assets across a continent simultaneously, creating an unprecedented bottleneck in the global supply chain. The National Academies of Sciences has estimated that between 20-40 million people in the U.S. could be at risk of an extended power outage lasting from 16 days to one or two years.

Falling from the Sky: The Existential Risk to Satellite Constellations

In 1859, the space above Earth was empty. Today, it is populated by thousands of satellites that form the backbone of global communications, navigation, weather forecasting, financial timing, and national security. A Carrington-level storm would subject this entire orbital infrastructure to a multi-pronged assault.

First, the storm would unleash a torrent of solar energetic particles (SEPs)—high-energy protons and ions—that would dramatically increase the radiation environment in space for days.26 This radiation damages satellites in several ways. It causes "displacement damage" to solar arrays and sensitive optoelectronics, degrading their performance and shortening their operational lifespan. More acutely, it causes "Single Event Effects" (SEEs), where a single high-energy particle strikes a microchip, altering bits in memory (a soft error) or, in the worst case, triggering a short circuit that permanently destroys the component (a hard error or latch-up). 

Second, the storm's plasma environment would cause electrostatic charging on satellite surfaces and within their internal components. When this built-up charge suddenly discharges—like a miniature lightning strike—it can damage or destroy sensitive electronics. This phenomenon, known as electrostatic discharge (ESD), is a leading cause of satellite anomalies. 

Third, the intense energy input from the storm would heat and expand Earth's tenuous upper atmosphere. This expansion significantly increases the atmospheric density in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), where thousands of satellites, including the Starlink constellation, operate. The increased density creates drag, which slows satellites down and causes their orbits to decay. Without prompt corrective maneuvers, they could de-orbit prematurely. This atmospheric expansion also makes tracking the precise location of satellites and the tens of thousands of pieces of space debris impossible, dramatically increasing the risk of catastrophic collisions. 

The Royal Academy of Engineering, in a comprehensive report, estimated that a Carrington-level event could cause temporary outages lasting hours to days in up to 10% of the global satellite fleet. While most could be recovered, some would likely be total losses. Critically, older satellites that survive the initial storm would have their lifespans significantly shortened by the accumulated radiation damage, potentially leading to widespread premature failures in the months and years following the event. 

Severing the Digital Lifeline: The "Internet Apocalypse" Scenario

A Carrington-level storm poses a unique and potentially catastrophic threat to the physical infrastructure of the global internet. While much of the terrestrial and regional internet relies on fiber-optic cables, which are immune to GICs, the backbone of global connectivity consists of a network of long undersea communication cables that span the oceans. 

These submarine cables are vulnerable. To counteract signal degradation over thousands of kilometers, they are fitted with powered signal boosters, or repeaters, every 50 to 150 km along their length. These repeaters are powered by a conducting copper sheath that runs the length of the cable. This long, conducting wire is, like a telegraph line or a power line, highly susceptible to geomagnetically induced currents.

During a severe geomagnetic storm, powerful GICs could flow through these cables, overloading and permanently damaging the sensitive electronics within the repeaters. The simultaneous failure of a large number of these repeaters across multiple trans-oceanic cables would effectively sever intercontinental internet connectivity. This would result in a continent-level "internet apocalypse," isolating North America, Europe, and Asia from one another in the digital realm. The consequences would be devastating for a global economy built on cloud computing, international financial transactions, and instant communication. Recovery would be an arduous and expensive process, as a limited fleet of specialized cable-laying ships would be required to locate, retrieve, and repair or replace the damaged repeaters on the ocean floor.

Grounded and Adrift: Impacts on Aviation and Maritime Operations

The aviation and maritime industries are critically dependent on technologies that are highly vulnerable to space weather. A Carrington-level event would cause severe and immediate disruption to global transportation.

The primary impact would be the loss of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), such as the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS). The intense ionospheric disturbances caused by a superstorm would scintillate and delay satellite signals, rendering precision navigation impossible for a period of one to three days, perhaps even a week or more.  Without reliable GPS, commercial aircraft would be grounded, and maritime shipping, which relies on GPS for navigation and port operations, would grind to a halt. 

Simultaneously, the solar flare preceding the storm would cause an immediate and complete blackout of High-Frequency (HF) radio communications on the sunlit side of the Earth. HF radio is the primary means of long-range communication for aircraft on trans-oceanic and trans-polar routes. The loss of HF communication would force flights to be rerouted to longer, more costly paths over land where they can remain in contact via VHF radio, causing massive disruption to flight schedules. 

Finally, a severe storm poses a significant radiation hazard to humans at high altitudes. Passengers and crew on flights, particularly those on high-latitude polar routes, would be exposed to a large dose of solar radiation. The Royal Academy of Engineering estimated that the radiation dose from a single flight during an extreme event could be up to 20 millisieverts (mSv), which is twenty times the annual public exposure limit and equivalent to several CT scans. This would pose a measurable increase in long-term cancer risk for those exposed.

The Trillion-Dollar Catastrophe: Economic Consequences of a Recurrence

The physical disruption to critical infrastructure caused by a modern Carrington event would translate into an economic catastrophe of unprecedented scale. The financial impact would extend far beyond the direct costs of repairing and replacing damaged equipment, triggering a global shockwave through paralyzed supply chains and crippled financial markets. Multiple independent analyses by leading risk assessment institutions converge on a sobering conclusion: a solar superstorm represents one of the most severe and costly natural disaster scenarios facing the global economy.

Direct Costs and Cascading Infrastructure Failures

Initial assessments of the economic impact have focused on the direct costs of a widespread, long-duration power outage. A landmark 2008 study by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences concluded that a severe geomagnetic storm could have a total economic impact exceeding $2 trillion in the United States alone in the first year, with a full recovery taking four to ten years. This figure, which is twenty times greater than the costs associated with Hurricane Katrina, highlights the scale of the potential devastation. 

The insurance industry has also attempted to quantify the risk. A widely cited 2013 report from Lloyd's of London, produced in collaboration with the Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER) agency, estimated the potential cost to the U.S. economy from a Carrington-level event to be between $0.6 and $2.6 trillion. A 2016 analysis from the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies projected that a catastrophic solar storm affecting 90 million U.S. citizens could result in supply chain losses of at least $470 billion globally, with a potential high-end estimate of $2.7 trillion for the most extreme scenario. 

More recent modeling continues to reinforce these multi-trillion-dollar estimates. A 2025 systemic risk scenario published by Lloyd's, also in partnership with the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies, modeled the five-year global economic impact of a major solar storm. It found a probability-weighted average loss of $2.4 trillion, with the loss in the most extreme scenario reaching $9.1 trillion.53 This model identified North America as the most financially exposed region, with a potential five-year economic loss of $755 billion in the median scenario. The insurance industry itself would face staggering claims, primarily from business interruption coverage, with estimates ranging from $55 billion to over $333 billion in the U.S. alone. 

Global Supply Chain Paralysis: The Indirect Economic Shockwave

A critical finding from more recent and sophisticated economic modeling is that the direct costs of infrastructure damage, while substantial, are dwarfed by the indirect, cascading costs of global supply chain paralysis. A 2017 study from the University of Cambridge, published in the journal Space Weather, was the first to rigorously quantify these indirect effects. Its central conclusion was that, on average, the direct economic cost from the electricity disruption itself represents less than half (49%) of the total potential macroeconomic cost. The majority of the financial damage occurs outside the immediate blackout zone, rippling through a deeply interconnected global economy.

The study modeled the daily economic losses under several blackout scenarios. In its most extreme scenario, affecting two-thirds of the U.S. population, the daily domestic economic loss could total $41.5 billion, supplemented by an additional $7 billion loss per day through the disruption of international supply chains. Even a more limited blackout affecting only the northernmost U.S. states (8% of the population) would still result in a daily economic loss of $6.2 billion, plus an additional $0.8 billion in international supply chain impacts.

These indirect costs arise because the blackout zone is not an isolated economic island. The loss of power, communication, and transportation paralyzes manufacturing, halts financial transactions, healthcare and medical services and chokes off the flow of raw materials, intermediate goods, and finished products. The study identified the U.S. manufacturing sector as the most severely affected, followed by government, finance, healthcare and insurance, and property sectors. Internationally, the nations most impacted by a U.S. blackout would be its largest trading partners—China, Canada, and Mexico—as U.S. demand for their goods collapses and their own supply chains are starved of U.S. components and products. This demonstrates that economic resilience to space weather is not a local or even national issue, but an inherently global one.

The following table consolidates key economic impact estimates from these authoritative sources, providing a multi-faceted view of the potential financial consequences of a Carrington-level event.

 

The scale of these figures suggests that a Carrington-level event would not be a conventional insurable catastrophe. The systemic, simultaneous failure of multiple sectors over a prolonged period would likely overwhelm the capacity of the global insurance and reinsurance markets. The vast majority of the multi-trillion-dollar loss would be uninsured, representing a direct and devastating shock to the global economy that would necessitate government intervention on an unprecedented scale.

Forging a Shield: Strategies for Mitigation and Preparedness

While the threat of a Carrington-level event is daunting, it is not unmanageable. A combination of improved forecasting, targeted engineering solutions, and robust policy frameworks can significantly mitigate the potential damage. The challenge lies in implementing these strategies at a scale commensurate with the risk, a task that requires sustained investment and international cooperation. The goal is not to prevent the storm, which is impossible, but to build a civilization resilient enough to withstand it.

Watching the Sun: Advances in Space Weather Forecasting and Early Warning Systems

The first line of defense against space weather is forecasting. The primary operational entity for the U.S. government is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC). Supported by a fleet of research and operational spacecraft from NASA and other agencies, such as the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) and the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), the SWPC provides a continuous stream of watches, warnings, and alerts to government agencies, infrastructure operators, and the public.

However, forecasting faces a critical "warning time problem." The radiation from a solar flare, which causes immediate radio blackouts, travels at the speed of light, providing only an eight-minute warning. The CME, which drives the main geomagnetic storm, provides a longer lead time. For a typical CME, this is one to three days. This is enough time for satellite operators to place spacecraft into a protective "safe mode" or for power grid managers to reconfigure their networks and postpone non-essential maintenance.

For an extremely fast Carrington-type event, however, this warning time could shrink to less than 18 hours. More critically, the ultimate geoeffectiveness of a CME—its ability to cause a severe storm—depends heavily on the orientation of its internal magnetic field. This crucial parameter can only be definitively measured when the CME reaches the DSCOVR satellite, which is positioned at the L1 Lagrange point about one million miles from Earth. From this point, the CME is only 15 to 45 minutes away from impact. This provides insufficient time for many of the most effective protective actions, such as taking large transformers offline. This limitation underscores the fact that forecasting alone is not a complete solution; it must be paired with pre-emptive infrastructure hardening. Future missions, such as the European Space Agency's Vigil, aim to improve lead times by positioning spacecraft at other locations to provide more comprehensive data. 

Hardening the Homeland: Engineering Resilience in Critical Infrastructure

Given the limitations of forecasting, engineering solutions that physically protect critical infrastructure are essential. For the electrical power grid, several mature technologies exist to mitigate the threat of GICs. The most prominent are neutral blocking devices, which are essentially large capacitor banks installed in the transformer's neutral-to-ground connection. These devices block the flow of quasi-DC GICs while allowing normal AC currents to pass, effectively shielding the transformer from harm. Other strategies include installing series capacitors on transmission lines, hardening sensitive electronic control systems within Faraday cages, and upgrading grid communication systems to fiber optics, which are immune to electromagnetic interference.

The cost of hardening the most vulnerable parts of the grid is significant but pales in comparison to the potential losses from a major storm. The EMP Commission estimated that the 2,000 most critical transformers in the U.S. could be protected for approximately $2 billion. Other estimates suggest a large transformer could be protected for as little as $75,000 if done at scale. This presents a "preparedness paradox": the cost-benefit analysis overwhelmingly favors hardening, but the low annual probability of a severe event makes it difficult for private utilities, operating under regulatory and market pressures, to justify the large capital investment. Overcoming this paradox likely requires government mandates, regulations, or financial incentives.

For satellites, resilience is built in through the use of radiation-hardened components, physical shielding, and redundant systems. For the aviation and maritime industries, preparedness relies on established procedures. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has implemented a global space weather advisory service that provides standardized information to operators, enabling them to reroute flights away from polar regions during radiation storms or plan for the use of alternative navigation and communication systems.

A Coordinated Response: National and International Policy Frameworks

Recognizing that space weather is a significant national security threat, governments have begun to establish formal policy frameworks to guide preparedness efforts. In the United States, the Promoting Research and Observations of Space Weather to Improve Forecasting of Tomorrow (PROSWIFT) Act of 2020 codified the roles and responsibilities of various federal agencies. This is guided by the

National Space Weather Strategy and Action Plan, which sets goals for improving forecasting, assessing vulnerabilities, and developing mitigation and response protocols.58

This strategy is implemented through interagency bodies like the Space Weather Operations, Research, and Mitigation (SWORM) Subcommittee, which coordinates efforts across NOAA, NASA, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Defense (DOD), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). A critical part of this effort is conducting practical exercises. In May 2024, the U.S. government held its first-ever end-to-end space weather tabletop exercise to test interagency coordination and response protocols. The exercise highlighted a critical need for more robust forecasting capabilities and better communication of potential impacts to infrastructure operators and the public.

Because space weather is a global phenomenon, international collaboration is essential. The United Kingdom has its own Severe Space Weather Preparedness Strategy, and there is a growing emphasis on establishing real-time data sharing and coordinated response plans among allied nations and international bodies. The ultimate goal is to create a global network for observation, forecasting, and response that is as resilient and interconnected as the threat it is designed to face.

Conclusion: Living with a Star

History shows us the Carrington Event of 1859 was a defining moment, a planetary-scale natural experiment that tore back the veil of the Sun's tempestuous nature and its profound influence over Earth. It was not a "black swan" or an unforeseeable anomaly, but a manifestation of the predictable, albeit extreme, behavior of our star—a recurring natural hazard with a statistical certainty of return. The historical record, both written and encoded in the rings of ancient trees, makes clear that such superstorms are an integral part of the Earth's environment. 

While the threat originates 93 million miles away, our vulnerability is entirely of our own making. It is a direct and unavoidable consequence of the complex, interconnected, and deeply fragile technological civilization we have constructed. In 1859, the storm's fury was channeled through 125,000 miles of telegraph wire. Today, it would surge through millions of miles of high-voltage power lines, cripple thousands of satellites in orbit, and sever the submarine cables that serve as the arteries of our digital world for days and even weeks. The resulting cascade of failures—in power, communication, navigation, finance, and logistics—would trigger a systemic crisis of a magnitude for which modern society has no precedent.

The multi-trillion-dollar economic projections, while staggering, may fail to capture the full extent of the potential human cost of a society plunged into a prolonged, continental-scale blackout. The analysis presented in this report leads to a clear and urgent conclusion: enhancing our resilience to severe space weather is not a peripheral concern but a central and critical component of 21st-century national and economic security.

The path forward requires a multi-layered, sustained, and strategic commitment. We must continue to invest in the science of space weather, deploying new observational assets that can push the boundaries of forecasting and extend our precious minutes of warning time into hours or days. We must translate scientific understanding into engineering action, moving beyond vulnerability assessments to the physical hardening of our most critical infrastructure—a task that demands innovative policy and a partnership between government and the private sector to overcome the "preparedness paradox." Finally, we must recognize that this is an inherently global challenge. A storm that darkens one continent will cast a long economic shadow over all others, necessitating deep international cooperation in data sharing, risk mitigation, and coordinated response.

The Carrington Event was a warning shot, fired across the bow of a nascent technological age. For over 160 years, we have built a world of unprecedented complexity and power, largely during a period of fortunate solar quiescence. The question is no longer if another Carrington-level event will occur, but when, and how prepared we will be when it does. Living with a star requires foresight, respect for its power, and the collective will to build a civilization that is not just connected, but resilient.

Disclaimer: This article is for general informational and research purposes only. Click Here Get Business Services

Below Learn More About The Carrington Event and Solar Storms ... 

The Carrington Event: History's greatest solar storm - Space, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.space.com/the-carrington-event

Solar storms could cost USA tens of billions of dollars | University of Cambridge, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/solar-storms-could-cost-usa-tens-of-billions-of-dollars

New study reveals potential cost of solar storms - British Antarctic Survey - News, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/news-study-reveals-potential-cost-of-solar-storms/

Neilsen | Dirty Fires: Cosmic Pollution and the Solar Storm of 1859 | 19, accessed September 1, 2025, https://19.bbk.ac.uk/article/id/1714/

A Perfect Solar Superstorm: The 1859 Carrington Event | HISTORY, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.history.com/articles/a-perfect-solar-superstorm-the-1859-carrington-event

The serendipitous discovery of solar flares - NOAA Research, accessed September 1, 2025, https://research.noaa.gov/the-serendipitous-discovery-of-solar-flares/

That Time Demons Possessed the Telegraph - Science History Institute, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/that-time-demons-possessed-the-telegraph/

Carrington Event - Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, accessed September 1, 2025, https://armagh.space/site/weather/history/carrington-event

From the Northern Lights to communication breakdown: How does space weather affect the Earth? | Science Museum, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/how-does-space-weather-affect-earth

Solar Storm of 1859 (Carrington Event) - Cedar Valley Sentinel, accessed September 1, 2025, https://cedarvalleysentinel.com/opinions-voices/insider-2019/solar-storm-of-1859-carrington-event/

Five historically huge solar events | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.noaa.gov/heritage/stories/five-historically-huge-solar-events

Spanish eyewitness accounts of the great space weather event of 1859 - AKJournals, accessed September 1, 2025, https://akjournals.com/downloadpdf/journals/074/46/3/article-p370.pdf

Carrington Event - Wikipedia, accessed September 1, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event

The 1859 space weather event revisited: limits of extreme activity, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.swsc-journal.org/articles/swsc/pdf/2013/01/swsc130015.pdf

Bringing scientists together to protect the Earth from space weather | NSF, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.nsf.gov/science-matters/bringing-scientists-together-protect-earth-space-weather

Eyewitness Reports of the Great Auroral Storm of 1859, accessed September 1, 2025, https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20050210157/downloads/20050210157.pdf

The Carrington Event - coimbra space summer school, accessed September 1, 2025, https://spacesummerschool.ipn.pt/the-carrington-event/

Coronal mass ejection - Wikipedia, accessed September 1, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronal_mass_ejection

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CME SCIENCE 1. Introduction The key to understanding solar activity lies in the Sun's ever-changing magnetic, accessed September 1, 2025, https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20150011136/downloads/20150011136.pdf

How strong was the Carrington Event? - EARTH Magazine, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/how-strong-was-carrington-event/

What Is The Story of The Carrington Event? : r/SolarMax - Reddit, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.reddit.com/r/SolarMax/comments/1bpe9rc/what_is_the_story_of_the_carrington_event/

ScienceCasts: Carrington-class CME Narrowly Misses Earth - YouTube, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ukQhycKOFw

Beyond Basic Drag in Interplanetary CME Modeling: Effects of Solar Wind Pileup and High‐Speed Streams, accessed September 1, 2025, https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20230004246/downloads/Beyond_Basic_Drag_in_Interplanetary_CME_Modeling_E.pdf

(PDF) Eyewitness Reports of the Great Auroral Storm of 1859, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/223344160_Eyewitness_Reports_of_the_Great_Auroral_Storm_of_1859

Three-Dimensional Simulation Study of the Interactions of Three Successive CMEs during 4–5 November 1998 - MDPI, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1997/7/11/431

US Security Threatened by Solar Storm Impacts on Earth- and Space-Based Technologies, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.usu.edu/cai/files/studentpaper-fraley.pdf

May 1921 geomagnetic storm - Wikipedia, accessed September 1, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1921_geomagnetic_storm

Among solar storms, the one causing the Carrington Event was BIG - EarthSky, accessed September 1, 2025, https://earthsky.org/sun/solar-storms-affect-on-power-grid-internet/

Duration and extent of the great auroral storm of 1859 - PMC, accessed September 1, 2025, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5215858/

If the Biggest Solar Storm in History Happened Today | Adventures.com, accessed September 1, 2025, https://adventures.com/blog/carrington-event-biggest-solar-storm/

The Carrington Event of 1859 Disrupted Telegraph Lines. A “Miyake Event” Would Be Far Worse - JSTOR Daily, accessed September 1, 2025, https://daily.jstor.org/the-carrington-event-of-1859-disrupted-telegraph-lines/

What was the Carrington Event? | NOAA SciJinks – All About Weather, accessed September 1, 2025, https://scijinks.gov/what-was-the-carrington-event/

"Digital Apocalypse: How a Massive Solar Storm Could Cripple Earth" - Editverse, accessed September 1, 2025, https://editverse.com/solar-storm-threat/

Intensity and impact of the New York Railroad superstorm of May 1921, accessed September 1, 2025, https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70204992

When Solar Storms Attack: Space Weather and our Infrastructure ..., accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/when-solar-storms-attack-space-weather-and-our-infrastructure

www.usgs.gov, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.usgs.gov/news/preparing-nation-intense-space-weather#:~:text=The%20entire%20Canadian%20province%20of,transformers%2C%20and%20causing%20a%20blackout.

Impact of space weather on the satellite industry - GFZpublic, accessed September 1, 2025, https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/rest/items/item_2679913_5/component/file_2679924/content?download=true

Space Weather impacts - Met Office, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/metofficegovuk/pdf/business/public-sector/space-weather/space_weather_impacts.pdf

What Would Happen If The Carrington Event-Sized CME Hit Us? : r/spaceporn - Reddit, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.reddit.com/r/spaceporn/comments/1l0uo11/what_would_happen_if_the_carrington_eventsized/

New Algorithm Details the Most Extreme Particle Storm Known to Science - Universe Today, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.universetoday.com/articles/new-algorithm-details-the-most-extreme-particle-storm-known-to-science

A solar storm like the Carrington Event could knock out the Internet - Astronomy Magazine, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.astronomy.com/science/a-large-solar-storm-could-knock-out-the-internet-and-power-grid-an-electrical-engineer-explains-how/

Electric Power Transmission | NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/impacts/electric-power-transmission

Geomagnetic Storms and the US Power Grid - Space Weather Prediction Center, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/images/u33/finalBoulderPresentation042611%20%281%29.pdf

Protecting the grid from solar storms - Western Area Power Administration, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.wapa.gov/protecting-the-grid-from-solar-storms/

The Carrington Event or How the Sun Can Make Civilized Life Miserable, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.astro.sunysb.edu/fwalter/AST248/Carrington.pptx.pdf

Extreme space weather: impacts on engineered systems and ..., accessed September 1, 2025, https://raeng.org.uk/media/lz2fs5ql/space_weather_full_report_final.pdf

Extreme space weather: impacts on engineered systems and infrastructure, accessed September 1, 2025, https://raeng.org.uk/media/2iclimo5/space_weather_summary_report.pdf

Space weather and the aviation sector, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.sws.bom.gov.au/Category/Educational/Pamphlets/Overview%20of%20space%20weather%20and%20potential%20impacts%20and%20mitigation%20for%20the%20aviation%20sector.pdf

Extreme space weather - Lloyd's, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.lloyds.com/insights/futureset/futureset-insights/systemic-risk-scenarios/extreme-space-weather

Learning about space weather, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.spaceweather.gc.ca/info-gen/index-en.php

Space weather | UK Civil Aviation Authority, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.caa.co.uk/safety-initiatives/safety-projects/space-weather/

Understanding the economic impact of space weather risks | Analysis | StrategicRISK Global, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.strategic-risk-global.com/esg-risks/understanding-the-economic-impact-of-space-weather-risks/1419210.article

Counting the economic cost: How vulnerable could you be? - Lloyd's, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.lloyds.com/insights/futureset/futureset-insights/systemic-risk-scenarios/extreme-space-weather/economic-impact

Lloyd's: Space Weather Could Lead to $2.4trn Economic Losses | InsurTech Digital, accessed September 1, 2025, https://insurtechdigital.com/articles/lloyds-space-weather-could-lead-to-2-4trn-economic-losses

Lloyd's highlights risk of extreme space weather as latest scenario reveals potential global economic loss of $2.4trn, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.lloyds.com/insights/media-centre/press-releases/extreme-space-weather-scenario

Extreme space weather could see $2.4tn economic loss: Lloyd's | Insurance Insider, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.insuranceinsider.com/article/2eht9hbzphapc4z6tc9hc/all-segments/lloyds/extreme-space-weather-could-see-2-4tn-economic-loss-lloyds

Extreme space weather-induced electricity blackouts could cost U.S. more than $40 billion daily - AGU Newsroom, accessed September 1, 2025, https://news.agu.org/press-release/extreme-space-weather-induced-electricity-blackouts-could-cost-u-s-more-than-40-billion-daily/

Space Weather - CISA, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.cisa.gov/space-weather

Space Weather - NASA Science, accessed September 1, 2025, https://science.nasa.gov/heliophysics/focus-areas/space-weather/

Before an Extreme Solar Event - National Weather Service, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.weather.gov/safety/space-before

The U.S. Ran Its First Space Weather Preparedness Drill—Here's How It Went, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-us-ran-its-first-space-weather-preparedness-drill-heres-how-it-went-180986659/

assets.lloyds.com, accessed September 1, 2025, https://assets.lloyds.com/assets/pdf-solar-storm-risk-to-the-north-american-electric-grid/1/pdf-Solar-Storm-Risk-to-the-North-American-Electric-Grid.pdf

Developing a Secure Grid to Prevent Electromagnetic Pulses and Geomagnetic Storms: Right measures to Protect Techniques Against Pulses, EMP, and Solar Storms. - Energy Central, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.energycentral.com/energy-management/post/developing-secure-grid-prevent-electromagnetic-pulses-and-geomagnetic-BCoWj5w0DEiKvEu

Robert A McEntee-A1.docx - Department of Energy, accessed September 1, 2025, https://energy.gov/sites/default/files/2021-06/Robert%20A%20McEntee-A1.docx

NATIONAL SPACE WEATHER STRATEGY - Obama White House, accessed September 1, 2025, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/final_nationalspaceweatherstrategy_20151028.pdf

Nation's First Space Weather Simulation Exercise Examines U.S. Preparedness | NESDIS, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/nations-first-space-weather-simulation-exercise-examines-us-preparedness

UK Severe Space Weather Preparedness Strategy - GOV.UK, accessed September 1, 2025, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/614dea50e90e077a368ffc48/uk-severe-space-weather-preparedness-strategy.pdf

Space Environment Impacts Expert Group - SEIEG - British Antarctic Survey, accessed September 1, 2025, https://www.bas.ac.uk/science/science-and-society/space-environment-impact-expert-group/