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      Bracing the Satellite Infrastructure for a Solar Superstorm

      A recurrence of the 1859 solar superstorm would be a cosmic Katrina, causing billions of dollars of damage to satellites, power grids and radio communications

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      Bracing the Satellite Infrastructure for a Solar Superstorm
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      Credits: Pat Rawlings/SAIC

      Bracing the Satellite Infrastructure for a Solar Superstorm

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      • September 3–4 Main phase of geomagnetic disturbances from second CME ends; scattered auroral sightings continue, but with diminishing intensity.
      • September 2 05:00 UTC Greenwich and Kew magnetic observatories detect disturbances followed immediately by geomagnetic chaos; second CME arrives at Earth within 17.5 hours, traveling at 2,380 kilo­meters per second with southward magnetic orientation; auroras appear as far south as Venezuela...
      • September 1 11:15 UTC Astronomer Richard C. Carrington, among others, sights a white-light flare on the sun; the large sunspot group has rotated to longitude 12 degrees west.
      • August 30 Geomagnetic disturbances and auroral sightings from first CME end.
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      • August 28 22:55 UTC Auroral sightings are recorded as far south as the Caribbean.
      • August 28 22:55 UTC Main storm phase begins, with large magnetic disturbances, telegraphic disruptions and auroral sightings.
      • August 28 07:30 UTC Greenwich Magnetic Observatory detects a disturbance, signaling compression of the magneto­sphere.
      • August 28 The main body of plasma takes hours or days to reach Earth, But an advance blast of energetic particles hits almost immediately. CME arrives at Earth with a glancing blow because of the solar longitude of its source; its magnetic orientation is north­ward...
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      • August 26 First Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)possibly launched. The 1859 event involved two CMEs, and the second moved faster because the first had cleared its way.
      • August 26 Large sunspot group appears near longitude 55 degrees west on the sun.
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