Carlos conquers Carrington

The solar storm of 1859

Nobody living today can remember two significant events that occurred in September 1859. These events were separated by a 24 hour break. Our ever-dependable friend the sun, sent two "death rays" our way, sometimes referred to in technical jargon as CMEs, or Coronal Mass Ejections. Solar storms.

Humankind had not noticed, nor had they ever been affected by these regular solar events in the past, because they didn't have a noticeable effect upon a world without electrical technology. CMEs were a hitherto unknown electromagnetic hazard waiting to shake hands with humanity, just as soon as we gained a certain level of electrical technical ability.

By 1859 we had just done so. A fledgling transcontinental electrical network fed the telegraph system via large batteries and dynamos, and it was now linking two continents. North America and Europe were online 24/7, albeit comprised of Morse encoded dashes and dots.

The Sun fires CME's regularly, but only when the sun's plasma discharges align with the earth do they have any chance of reaching us. When certain types of sunspots near the sun's surface reach the required peak electromagnetic intensity, they can pose a real threat to us.

The 1859 CMEs really were almost death rays for a few of the telegraph operators at the time. The telegraphers continued their transmissions as expected, even when everything indicated that there was something very unusual happening. These telegraphers did not even have to switch on their battery connections to send and receive Morse code, because the telegraphers could not switch them off. The electrical telegraph systems hummed and buzzed with an overload of uncontrollable electromagnetic energy.

Then there were strange auroras, brightly illuminating the evening skies just like curtains of moonlight as far south as the Bahamas. The population of the Southern hemisphere was also witnessing these purple hued Auroras. Really unusual!

Unfortunately, several telegraphers received intense electric shocks and indeed some telegraph buildings caught fire from the surging electrical current that the sun was sending to them. The sun and the earth had formed a monolithic electric circuit across the vast empty space between them. There was nothing visible to be seen connecting the sun with the earth, but this whole space was alive and pulsing with surging tantric waves of electricity, all ninety-three million miles of it.

The SUN was doing this to us? Who could have guessed?

One resolute contemporary solar observer and astronomer, Richard Carrington, was able to graphically reproduce in real time, the sunspot patterns that represented these CMEs. He observed through a specially constructed telescope which transferred the sun's surface image onto a wall, just like a movie or slide show. Inspired by Richard Carrington's devotion to solar observation, The Royal Astronomical Society named this solar phenomenon in Carrington's honour. The Carrington Event of September 1859 had become a thing.

The solar storm of 2029

In 2029 more than a dozen northern hemisphere cities were affected by just such a Carrington-like event, but this time it was even more catastrophic. Whole cities went offline completely. One or two indefinitely, Mad Max territory. The city that Carlos lived in avoided the most destructive outcomes of this CME.

Somehow and by what good fortune, his city seemed to have been out of the direct focus of this CME.

There had been a blackout, but for less than twenty-four hours. "Que Bueno" – what a relief - everyone shouted when the lights turned on again that evening. All the locals including Carlos and the fellow residents of his condominium jumped for joy and fisted the air victoriously. Life could continue. Earlier that evening they had all congregated in the darkened streets, to see how everything might proceed if the day long blackout continued, but also to behold the strange fiery trails of meteors earthward bound. There were some who said that one had crashed into an apartment block just a few kilometres away, but at this stage no one knew anything for sure. Electronic communication had ceased. Everything had been during this momentous day, just word of mouth.