The Effect of Carrington and How It Happens

The Carrington event was the biggest magnetic storm in history, caused by solar flares so big sunspots could be seen on the sun. The magnetic storm was so big it caused auroras to appear so bright that they could be seen from the southern hemisphere and also caused telegraph disturbances throughout the globe. At the time there wasn’t much lasting impact as there weren’t many electronics, but if the Carrington event happened today damage to the world would be extreme. Simulations of the event have shown that it would cost from 600 billion US dollars up to 2.9 trillion dollars, and it would take years to return the world to what it could be.

credit: https://assets.lloyds.com/assets/pdf-solar-storm-risk-to-the-north-american-electric-grid/1/pdf-Solar-Storm-Risk-to-the-North-American-Electric-Grid.pdf