this post was submitted on 16 May 2024
10 points (56.2% liked)
science
14786 readers
43 users here now
A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.
rule #1: be kind
<--- rules currently under construction, see current pinned post.
2024-11-11
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Just like all storms, the geomagnetic storm scale is imperfect. It maxes out at G5, so it's possible for a substantially worse storm to be in the same category as what we saw last weekend.
The 2003 event produced the biggest-ever solar flare ever measured, an X45. That year, several BIG transformers exploded in South Africa. This event's biggest so is 8.7. A lot depends on where it's aimed at ... but anyway , no, we are not prepared.