How a Great Solar Storm Almost Led to a Nuclear War

If that’s how it was then, makes you wonder what would happen today…

Via The Watchers:

For the first time, retired U.S. Air Force officers involved in forecasting and analyzing the extreme space weather event of May 23, 1967, collectively and publicly describe how great solar and geomagnetic storm at the height of the Cold War almost led to a disastrous military conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. Ultimately, this event led the military to recognize space weather as an operational concern and build a stronger space weather forecasting system.

Although listed as one of the most significant events of the last 80 years, the space weather storm of late May 1967 has been of mostly fading academic interest. The storm made its initial mark with a colossal solar radio burst causing radio interference at frequencies between 0.01 – 9.0 GHz and near-simultaneous disruptions of dayside radio communication by intense fluxes of ionizing solar X-rays.

“Aspects of military control and communication were immediately challenged. Within hours, a solar energetic particle event disrupted high-frequency communication in the polar cap. Subsequently, record-setting geomagnetic and ionospheric storms compounded the disruptions,” study authors say.

This story develops during the rapid rise of Solar Cycle 20 and the intense Cold War in the latter half of the 20^th Century. Authors detail the events of late May 1967 in the intersecting categories of solar-terrestrial interactions and the political-military backdrop of the Cold War. This was one of the “Great Storms” of the 20th century, despite the lack of large geomagnetically-induced currents.

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