A new, innovative study has found some encouraging news. It turns out the most powerful solar event ever detected occurred approximately 14,300 years ago, coinciding with the very end of the last Ice Age. CEREGE (France) professor Edouard Bard and his international research team tied down the size of a massive particle storm released by the Sun. This storm hit the Earth with the highest known level of high-energy particles and involved scientists from France and Switzerland.
That’s the surprising and intriguing finding in new research, published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. This primitive solar outburst was at least 18% stronger than the strongest recorded solar storm, which took place in AD 775. The new study, recently published in Nature, points to solar activity during a pivotal period in Earth’s climate history. It illustrates just how devastating these manmade events can be to our planet.
Unraveling the Solar Particle Storm
The research team utilized a sophisticated model known as SOCOL:14C-Ex, designed by scientists Kseniia Golubenko and Ilya Usoskin. This model assessed the effectiveness of solar particle storms at inducing glacial periods. It allowed scientists the first opportunity to study how these storms affected Earth’s upper atmosphere.
Those results show that a solar particle storm impacted earth in 12350 BC. This event had a large impact on the usual production of cosmogenic isotopes, most notably radiocarbon (14 C), in the atmosphere. This sudden increase in radiocarbon levels has given archaeologists a very accurate way of dating archaeological sites from that period.
Miyake events, named for the Japanese researcher who independently first identified them, define these sharp spikes in radiocarbon. They give scientists incredible data for studying ancient Earth systems and solar activity.
Historical Context and Implications
The paper places the 12,350 BC solar event into a relevant historical context. It does this in part by providing context against other major solar particle storms recorded in history. Other significant events include just before 994 AD, 663 BC, 5259 BC and 7176 BC. None of these storms came anywhere close to the intensity of the recent find, dating from 14,300 years ago.
Understanding these super solar storms is important for scientists studying the effects of the sun’s influence on Earth in a time of climate change. The combined intensity of these storms can have a profound effect on our atmosphere, and thus our life on Earth. Additionally, the results of this pilot study may be relevant to future studies of chronic space weather exposure patterns.
Model Validation and Future Research
The SOCOL:14C-Ex model played a pivotal role in validating the findings of this research. It demonstrated its prowess under Holocene and glacial conditions. This indeed turned out to be the case, as the solar event detected became the strongest solar particle storm ever recorded.
This validation allows for extensive future research – both in reconstructions of ancient solar activity and their impacts on Earth’s climatic systems. An overall goal of the scientists involved is to better understand how such extreme solar events might have shaped human societies and ecosystems in that era.