Space and Physics
PUBLISHED
The 1859 Carrington Event takes all of the glory as the defining space weather event of the 1800s. It is the most powerful solar storm on record, and it affected telegraph lines, started fires, and produced aurorae as far south as the Caribbean.
It isn't, however, the first time a space weather event impacted human technology.
In a paper published in the journal Nature in 1871, it was reported that in 1841, a train leaving the town of Exeter in southwest England was delayed by 16 minutes due to a "very intense magnetic disturbance" affecting the signaling equipment.
When this snippet was rediscovered in 2013, space weather expert William B. Cade speculated it was the earliest reported incidence of space weather messing with our tech. Since then, however, researchers have found a major issue with the story: the railway line referenced in the article wasn't opened until 1846. So did the event take place, and if so, when?
A team including Cade has now combed through scientific and historical data to set the record straight. They looked at solar and auroral observations, as well as newspapers and train timetables, finding that the event most likely took place on October 18, 1848 – when a major geomagnetic disturbance was reported.
“The Exeter train delay is a fascinating story because it sits right at the point where emerging technologies first began to encounter the realities of the space environment. By combining historical archives with scientific observations, we've been able to show that the event almost certainly happened in 1848 rather than 1841,” Professor Jim Wild at Lancaster University, UK, said in a statement.
“Although this means it is not the earliest recorded space weather impact, it remains one of the first clear examples of solar activity disrupting critical infrastructure. It also demonstrates the value of combining scientific records with contemporary newspaper reports and archival documents when reconstructing historic space weather events.”
The team believes the error was due to a simple typographical mistake. The new record holder for the oldest example of space weather disrupting technology is another telegraph interference, which happened in March 1847 on the Midland Railway.
Humanity has been dealing, knowingly and unknowingly, with the threat of space weather on our technology and way of life for almost 180 years. "What this research highlights is that space weather is not a new threat but a long-standing natural hazard,” Wild continued.
“The technologies affected have evolved from railway telegraphs to satellites, communications networks and power systems, but the challenge remains the same: understanding the risk and ensuring society is resilient to its impacts.”
"While today’s space weather capabilities are far more advanced than anything available in the 1800s, the modern technologies we depend on are also much more vulnerable to solar storms,” added co-author Dr Mike Hapgood, Visiting Scientist and Space Weather Expert at STFC’s RAL Space.
“Deepening our understanding of these events is essential for preparing for, and mitigating, the impacts of space weather – especially as we look forward to a decade of exciting space developments that will face the challenge of a new solar cycle in the 2030s.”
In recent years, thanks to ground-based observatories such as the Daniel K. Inoue Solar Observatory or spacecraft like the Solar Orbiter and the Parker Solar Probe, we have learned so much more about the Sun, but mysteries persist.
A paper describing this work was published in the journal Space Weather.
