The extreme magnetic storm of 1–2 September 1859

Abstract

The 1–2 September 1859 magnetic storm was the most intense in recorded history on the basis of previously reported ground observations and on newly reduced ground‐based magnetic field data. Using empirical results on the interplanetary magnetic field strengths of magnetic clouds versus velocities, we show that the 1 September 1859 Carrington solar flare most likely had an associated intense magnetic cloud ejection which led to a storm on Earth of DST ∼ −1760 nT. This is consistent with the Colaba, India local noon magnetic response of ΔH = 1600 ± 10 nT. It is found that both the 1–2 September 1859 solar flare energy and the associated coronal mass ejection speed were extremely high but not unique. Other events with more intense properties have been detected; thus a storm of this or even greater intensity may occur again. Because the data for the high‐energy tails of solar flares and magnetic storms are extremely sparse, the tail distributions and therefore the probabilities of occurrence cannot be assigned with any reasonable accuracy. A further complication is a lack of knowledge of the saturation mechanisms of flares and magnetic storms. These topics are discussed in some detail.

Searching for Carrington-like events and their signatures and triggers

“…These conclusions shook some previous results on Carrington storm, which considered that the negative H-spike was a drop of Dst and therefore related to a ring current enhancement as a consequence of a long duration and intense southern B z , due to a magnetic cloud (Tsurutani et al 2003;Li et al 2006). Besides the H-spike at Colaba for the 1859 event had also been suggested as not attributed to the ring current by some authors (e.g.…”

“…The first task to be done is to prepare Model-C data with the same temporal resolution as the events to be compared, i.e., to get C59 1-min resolution data to be compared to other 1-min resolution data from the INTERMAGNET database. Therefore in order to get C59 data ready for the algorithm we first digitized data from Figure 3 of Tsurutani et al (2003) (which displays data for a 2-day interval [from 1 September 16 h to 3 September 16 h Bombay local time]), and then an interpolation was done to obtain 1-min resolution data of the 2-day data sample.…”

“…However, due to the absence of interplanetary data at that time the role of southward IMF B z in triggering the storm is unknown. As a result, a large amount of guesswork has been done concerning the Carrington storm (see as an example Tsurutani et al 2003Tsurutani et al , 2005Siscoe et al 2006;Manchester et al 2006 concerning the identification of the interplanetary trigger). Cid et al (2015) found that the profile of the horizontal component (H) of the terrestrial magnetic field measured in a 2-day period extending from 16:00 MLT, 28 October 2003 to 16:00 MLT, 30 October 2003 at Tihany magnetic observatory (in Hungary) was very similar to that recorded at Colaba during the same MLTs on 1-3 September 1859.…”

A study on the peak Dst and peak negative Bz relationship during intense geomagnetic storms

“…This was the case of a recent study of the historical super intense storm of September 2, 1859, for which Tsurutani et al [2003] assumed a direct and simultaneous time association for the occurrence of the Bs and Dst peaks. This assumption was correct within a 25% error of time displacement between the peaks, according to the present study.…”

Space Weather: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

“…This 1859 geomagnetic storm ("the Carrington event") has served as the reference point for defining great storms, and for identifying impacts from such a great storm on contemporary technologies, including long conductors (e.g., Cliver 2006; National Academies 2008; Tsurutani et al 2003;Chigomezyo et al 2013). Prescott (1860Prescott ( , 1875) records a number of first hand experiences of the telegraph operators during the Carrington event.…”