Superflare events from Sun estimated to be statistically significant for modern Earth

[gary]

What we regard as "normal-sized" flares are common on the sun.

In recent years, astronomers have observed "superflares" on stars
hundreds of light years away which are hundreds to thousands of times
more energetic than normal flares.

So can a superflare ever occur on the sun in modern times?

Researchers have performed statistical analysis on data from GAIA and the
Apache Point Observatory on other stars and come to the conclusion that
a superflare on the sun is still probable.





Geomagnetic storms have knocked-out power grids in North America
in the past. A superflare has the potential to disrupt power grids over a
wider region of the Earth and could also result in electronics exhibiting
run-time failures or hard faults.

Article here :-
https://phys.org/news/2019-06-rare-superflares-day-threaten-earth.html

Article here :-
http://astronomy.com/news/2019/06/powerful-superflares-could-pose-a-threat-to-earth

[multiweb]

I went to a space weather seminar last year and some of the stuff they said was hair raising. I think it is in 2016 we had a massive flare that went way clear of earth. It was in the wrong quadrant and didn't affect us. I don't recall if Mars or the rovers there were affected. But the speaker said that if we had been caught in the middle we'd be back to horse and carriages. His words. The magnitude of the flare was on par with the one that happened in the 1800s. They mentioned that to rebuild one of the big electricity transformers that are part of the grid would likely take months. And everything else would take months if not years to go back to normal. He also stressed that technology and our dependence on it has made us more vulnerable to this kind of events and a radical change in what we're doing is needed. But they also feel it is not viewed as a priority and most of the warnings fall in death ears. Pretty much like the 50c temperature they are experiencing today in India. A very short mention in the news. 10s then onto something else.

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/145167/heatwave-in-india?src=eoa-iotd