Related papers: Modeling atmospheric effects of the September 1859…
The terrestrial effects of major solar events such as the Carrington white-light flare and subsequent geomagnetic storm of August-September 1859 are of considerable interest, especially in light of recent predictions that such extreme…
Solar energetic particles ionize the atmosphere, leading to production of nitrogen oxides. It has been suggested that some such events are visible as layers of nitrate in ice cores, yielding archives of energetic, high fluence solar proton…
Nitrate ion spikes in polar ice cores are contentiously used to estimate the intensity, frequency, and probability of historical solar proton events, quantities that are needed to prepare for potentially society-crippling space weather…
Ozone in Earth's atmosphere is known to have a radiative forcing effect on climate. Motivated by geochemical evidence for one or more nearby supernovae about 2.6 million years ago, we have investigated the question of whether a supernova at…
It is likely that one or more gamma-ray bursts within our galaxy have strongly irradiated the Earth in the last Gy. This produces significant atmospheric ionization and dissociation, resulting in ozone depletion and DNA-damaging ultraviolet…
We examine possible sources of a substantial increase in tree ring 14C measurements for the years AD 774-775. Contrary to claims regarding a coronal mass ejection (CME), the required CME energy is not several orders of magnitude greater…
Motivated by the occurrence of a moderately nearby supernova near the beginning of the Pleistocene, possibly as part of a long-term series beginning in the Miocene, we investigate whether nitrate rainout resulting from the atmospheric…
Molecular oxygen in our atmosphere has increased from less than a part per million in the Archean Eon, to a fraction of a percent in the Proterozoic, and finally to modern levels during the Phanerozoic. The ozone layer formed with the early…
The solar eruption that occurred on 2023 November 28 (SOL2023-11-28) triggered an intense geomagnetic storm on Earth on 2023 December 1. The associated Earth's auroras manifested at the most southern latitudes in the northern hemisphere…
We trace the evolution of research on extreme solar and solar-terrestrial events from the 1859 Carrington event to the rapid development of the last twenty years. Our focus is on the largest observed/inferred/theoretical cases of sunspot…
The geomagnetic "solar flare effect" (SFE) results from excess ionization in the Earth's ionosphere, famously first detected at the time of the Carrington flare in 1859. This indirect detection of a flare constituted one of the first cases…
Intense solar flares originated in sun spots produce high energy particles (protons, $\alpha$) well observable by satellites and ground-based detectors. The flare onset produces signals in different energy bands (radio, X, gamma and…
The effect of precipitating high-energy particles on atmospheric physics and chemistry is extensively studied over the last decade. In majority of the existing models, the precipitating particles induced ionization plays an essential role.…
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are likely to have made a number of significant impacts on the Earth during the last billion years. We have used a two-dimensional atmospheric model to investigate the effects on the Earth's atmosphere of GRBs…
Based on cosmological rates, it is probable that at least once in the last Gy the Earth has been irradiated by a gamma-ray burst in our Galaxy from within 2 kpc. Using a two-dimensional atmospheric model we have performed the first…
Certain forms of solar wind transients contain significant enhancements of dynamic pressure and may effectively drive magnetosphere dynamics, including substorms and storms. An integral element of such driving is the generation of a wide…
Melott et al. [2016] suggest that individual solar proton events (SPEs) are detectable as nitrate ion spikes in ice cores. They use the high fluence, high energy (hard spectrum) SPE of 23 February 1956 to calculate an enhancement of HNO3…
Ozone depletion events are recurring phenomena in both polar regions, characterized by significant interannual variability. In this study, the Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) Global Deterministic Prediction System is used to…
We have found evidence for fluxes of energetic electrons in interplanetary space on board the ISEE-3 spacecraft which we interpret as the decay products of neutrons generated in a solar flare on 1980 June 21. The decay electrons arrived at…
Solar eruptions generally refer to coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and flares. Both are important sources of space weather. Solar flares cause sudden change in the ionization level in the ionosphere. CMEs cause solar energetic particle (SEP)…