Astronomy stuff, part 1: 150 years ago today

This probably didn't make the news most places, but today marks the 150th anniversary of the Carrington event, the most massive solar flare and coronal mass ejection in recorded history. Not only was the sunlight noticably brighter for a short time, but later when the charged particles reached the earth's magnetic field, the northern lights were brighter than anyone could remember, and seen as far south as Cuba.

Space.com posted an article on the anniversary today, but I chose to dig and find some other articles that had impressed me when I came across them months ago.

An article on nasa.gov from October 23, 2003 explains what happened. Some excerpts:

"...the Sun released a mammoth solar flare. For almost an entire minute the amount of sunlight the Sun produced at the region of the flare actually doubled. With the flare came this explosive release of a massive cloud of magnetically charged plasma called a coronal mass ejection...Not all coronal mass ejections head toward Earth. Those that do usually take three to four days to get here. This one took all of 17 hours and 40 minutes,"

"Not only was this coronal mass ejection an extremely fast mover, the magnetic fields contained within it were extremely intense and in direct opposition with Earth's magnetic fields. That meant the coronal mass ejection of September 1, 1859, overwhelmed Earth's own magnetic field, allowing charged particles to penetrate into Earth's upper atmosphere."

Translation: we got slammed. The article goes on to speculate what would happen if such a "perfect solar storm" were to happen today; damage to satellites, interruption in communications worldwide, etc. Back then, the cutting edge electronic technology was the telegraph. The strong aurora induced currents in telegraph lines in the US and in Europe, causing sparks to fly and setting some fires. The induced currents wreaked havoc with the battery supplied current in the wires, and made it difficult to impossible for the telegraph operators to handle traffic. This exchange between two telegraph operators was recorded for posterity; I pulled the quote from the Wikipedia entry. They tried the obvious solution...

Boston operator (to Portland operator): "Please cut off your battery [power source] entirely for fifteen minutes."
Portland operator: "Will do so. It is now disconnected."
Boston: "Mine is disconnected, and we are working with the auroral current. How do you receive my writing?"
Portland: "Better than with our batteries on. - Current comes and goes gradually."
Boston: "My current is very strong at times, and we can work better without the batteries, as the aurora seems to neutralize and augment our batteries alternately, making current too strong at times for our relay magnets. Suppose we work without batteries while we are affected by this trouble."
Portland: "Very well. Shall I go ahead with business?"
Boston: "Yes. Go ahead."

According to the Boston Traveler, they continued without battery power for about two hours.

The aurora were bright enough that there were reports of people being able to read watches and reasonably large type at 1 a.m., and there were instances of fire departments being called out to investigate what appeared to be red flames on the horizon.

A web site called solarstorms.org has a fascinating list of newspaper entries. It's interesting to see the range of emotions...

from the factual:

…Large print could no doubt have been easily read, for we can testify that the time on the face of a watch was easily legible…[Washington Daily National Intelligencer, September 3, 1859].

to amazement (again a reference to telegraph difficulties):

…Never in my experience of fifteen years in working telegraph lines have I witnessed anything like the extraordinary effect of the Aurora Borealis between Quebec and Farther Point last night. The line was in most perfect order, and well skilled operators worked incessantly from 8 o'clock last evening till 1 this morning...and at the latter hour so completely were the wires under the influence of the Aurora Borealis that it was found utterly impossible to communicate between the telegraph stations...{Rochester Union & Advertizer, Tuesday Evening August

to alarm:

…Half-past eleven. 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…[San Francisco Herald, September 5, 1859].

and to the poetic:

The Aurora Borealis : The Brilliant Display on Sunday Night, The present generation have listened with wonder and admiration to the stories their fathers and mothers have told them of auroras and meteors. They have opened their ears and mouths and eyes as they heard of stars falling from the heavens like rain, of the sky at night becoming read as with blood...Few have had the opportunities of witnessing these sublime displays; but on Sunday night the heavens were arrayed in a drapery more gorgeous than they have been for years…Many imagined they heard rushing sounds as if Aeolus had let loose winds…[The New York Times, ]

I've studied enough astronomy to have a basic knowledge of the northern lights, but I can only try to imagine what people - worldwide - experienced 150 years ago tonight.