A 21st Century View of the March 1989 Magnetic Storm

Abstract

On 13 March 1989, the largest magnetic storm of the last century caused widespread effects on power systems including a blackout of the Hydro-Québec system. Since then this event has become the archetypal disturbance for examining the geomagnetic hazard to power systems. However, even 30 years on from 1989, the story of exactly what happened in March 1989 is far from complete. This paper reexamines the information available about the March 1989 event and uses this to construct a timeline and description of the space weather phenomena and how they caused the power system effects. The evidence shows that the disturbance was caused by two coronal mass ejections (CMEs): the first associated with a X4.5 flare on 10 March and the second linked to a M7.3 flare on 12 March. The arrival of the interplanetary CME shock fronts caused storm sudden commencements at 01.27 and 07.43 UT on 13 March. The transit time and speed of the first (second) interplanetary CME shock are 54.5 hr (31.5 hr) and 760 km/s (1,320 km/s). Empirical relations are used to estimate solar wind speed and southward interplanetary magnetic field, Bs, and give values of v = 980 km/s, Bs = 40 to 60 nT at the peak of the storm. Key findings are that the second storm sudden commencement occurred at the same time as the substorm that impacted the Hydro-Québec system and indicates that external triggering of the substorm may have contributed to a faster substorm onset than might otherwise have occurred. This caused the production of larger geomagnetically induced currents that caused the Hydro-Québec blackout. The March 1989 storm had the largest recorded value of the Dst index representing the size of the magnetic storm main phase, but the Hydro-Québec blackout occurred early in the storm when the Dst value was less disturbed. Only later in the storm did Dst reach its peak value. At this time an expansion of the auroral oval brought disturbances to lower latitudes where they caused power system problems in the United States, United Kingdom, and Sweden.

Estimating Satellite Orbital Drag During Historical Magnetic Superstorms

“…With respect to the aurorae of these events, Hayakawa, Ebihara, Cliver, et al (2019) estimated, based on contemporary observations, that their equatorward extent reached ∼ 32 • MLAT during the 1909 superstorm, as opposed to 40 • MLAT estimated from particle precipitation measurements by satellites during the 1989 superstorm (Pulkkinen et al, 2012;Rich & Denig, 1992). Intense GICs occurred during both events, with several reports of geophysical disturbances on telegraph systems in 1909 (Hapgood, 2019;Hayakawa, Ebihara, Cliver, et al, 2019;Love et al, 2019b;Silverman, 1995), and on power transmission lines in 1989, particularly the power blackout in Québec, Canada (Allen et al, 1989;Boteler, 2019;Kappenman, 2006;Oliveira & Ngwira, 2017). During the 1989 event, the only event with satellite-based data amongst the four superstorms, the number of space objects "lost" in LEO increased dramatically around periods of maximum intensity due to errors introduced by storm heating effects into tracking systems (Allen et al, 1989;Burke, 2018;Joselyn, 1990).…”

The Solar and Interplanetary Causes of Superstorms (Minimum Dst ≤ −250 nT) During the Space Age

“…Lakhina and Tsurutani () studied the 1989 event using SYM‐H data and Boteler () more recently studied it using ground magnetograms. Both analyses concluded that this was indeed an ICME‐ICME “compound event” with 2 MCs (and 2 sheaths) involved in causing the superstorm main phase.…”

An Analysis of Trouvelot's Auroral Drawing on 1/2 March 1872: Plausible Evidence for Recurrent Geomagnetic Storms

“…It is generally understood that midlatitude aurorae appear with great magnetic storms (e.g., Cid et al, 2014Cid et al, , 2015Daglis et al, 1999;Saiz et al, 2016;Schlegel & Schlegel, 2011;Vallance Jones, 1992), resulted from interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) or shock with corotating interaction region, with the southward interplanetary magnetic field (Borovsky & Denton, 2006;Gonzalez et al, 1994;Richardson et al, 2006). This was especially the case with the extreme storms such as the Hydro-Québec storm in March 1989, where sequence of ICMEs cause one of the most extreme geomagnetic storms in the space age and significant extension of the auroral oval (Allen et al, 1989;Boteler, 2019;Cid et al, 2014;Yokoyama et al, 1998). As such, midlatitude auroral reports have formed one of the important clues to understanding the space weather and space climate in the past (e.g., Domínguez-Castro et al, 2016;Hayakawa, Mitsuma, et al, 2019;Lockwood et al, 2016;Lockwood & Barnard, 2015;Riley et al, 2018;Silverman, 1992;Usoskin et al, 2013Usoskin et al, , 2015Vaquero et al, 2010;Vázquez et al, 2016).…”