Ancient ice reveals mysterious solar storm

Date:
January 26, 2022
Source:
Lund University
Summary:
Through analysis of ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica,
a research team has found evidence of an extreme solar storm that
occurred about 9,200 years ago. What puzzles the researchers is that
the storm took place during one of the sun's more quiet phases --
during which it is generally believed our planet is less exposed
to such events.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Through analysis of ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica, a research
team led by Lund University in Sweden has found evidence of an extreme
solar storm that occurred about 9,200 years ago. What puzzles the
researchers is that the storm took place during one of the sun's more
quiet phases -- during which it is generally believed our planet is less exposed to such events.


==========================================================================
The sun is a prerequisite for life on Earth. But our life-giving companion
can also cause problems. When there is strong activity on the surface
of the sun, more energy is released, something that can give rise to geomagnetic storms.

This in turn can cause power outages and communication disturbances.

Predicting solar storms is difficult. It is currently believed that they
are more likely during an active phase of the sun, or solar maximum,
during the so- called sunspot cycle. However, the new study published
in Nature Communications shows that this may not always be the case for
very large storms.

"We have studied drill cores from Greenland and Antarctica, and discovered traces of a massive solar storm that hit Earth during one of the sun's
passive phases about 9,200 years ago," says Raimund Muscheler, geology researcher at Lund University.

The researchers scoured the drill cores for peaks of the radioactive
isotopes beryllium-10 and chlorine-36. These are produced by high-energy
cosmic particles that reach Earth, and can be preserved in ice and
sediment.

"This is time consuming and expensive analytical work. Therefore, we were pleasantly surprised when we found such a peak, indicating a hitherto
unknown giant solar storm in connection with low solar activity," says
Raimund Muscheler.

If a similar solar storm were to take place today, it could have
devastating consequences. In addition to power outages and radiation
damage to satellites, it could pose a danger to air traffic and astronauts
as well as a collapse of various communication systems.

"These enormous storms are currently not sufficiently included in risk assessments. It is of the utmost importance to analyze what these events
could mean for today's technology and how we can protect ourselves,"
concludes Raimund Muscheler.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Lund_University. Note: Content may
be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Related Multimedia:
* Ice_cores ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Chiara I. Paleari, Florian Mekhaldi, Florian Adolphi, Marcus
Christl,
Christof Vockenhuber, Philip Gautschi, Ju"rg Beer, Nicolas Brehm,
Tobias Erhardt, Hans-Arno Synal, Lukas Wacker, Frank Wilhelms,
Raimund Muscheler. Cosmogenic radionuclides reveal an extreme
solar particle storm near a solar minimum 9125 years BP. Nature
Communications, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27891-4 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220126144204.htm

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