About that almost ‘Carrington Event’ two weeks ago ( Solar Eruption)....Eronous?

Watts Up With That? ^ | August 2, 2013 | by Anthony Watts

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Lots of people talking about this article in the UK daily Mail:

A near miss for Earth: Solar flare that could have knocked out power, cars and phones came so close two weeks ago

• Earth has narrowly missed electromagnetic pulses caused by solar flares
• If they had hit, the pulses could have knocked out electrical equipment over continent-scale regions

An electromagnetic pulse that could have knocked electrical equipment over continent-scale regions barely missed Earth two weeks ago, it has been revealed.

Source: (h/t Jack Simmons)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2382527/A-near-miss-Earth-Devastating-electromagnetic-pulses-knocked-power-cars-phones-occured-weeks-ago.html

But, not so fast…NASA’s Dr. Tony Phillips of Spaceweather.com writes:

Many readers are asking about a report in the Washington Examiner, which states that a Carrington-class solar storm narrowly missed Earth two weeks ago. There was no Carrington-class solar storm two weeks ago. On the contrary, solar activity was low throughout the month of July.

The report is erroneous.

The possibility of such a storm is, however, worth thinking about: A modern Carrington event would cause significant damage to our high-tech society.

There is even a recent SciFi movie revolving around the idea which seems to have gone straight to video:

[jiggyboy]

About that almost ‘Carrington Event’ two weeks ago

"We all had a marvelous time, thank you!"

[SierraWasp]

Oh! i coulda sworn that was supposed to be erroneous(sp?)!!!