On May 23, 1967, the world was on the brink of war. And it was all caused by the sun.
In a new paper being published by Space Weather, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, researchers chronicle how a solar flare brought the United States and the Soviet Union close to nuclear war.
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On that day, the U.S. Air force believed that the Soviet Union was jamming their polar surveillance radar. Just as they were ready to scramble their aircraft, military space weather forecasters — a relatively new branch — sent on information warning that a solar storm was taking place and that it could affect radar. The planes were never dispatched, avoiding a potential nuclear war.
A solar flare — released from sunspots —is a brief and powerful eruption of radiation for the sun’s atmosphere. Oftentimes, solar flares can result in coronal mass ejections (CME) which can trigger the northern lights if the fast-moving stream of particles interact with Earth’s magnetic field. It also disrupts radio waves.
The new information was shared by retired U.S. Air force officers involved in forecasting event.
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“This was a lesson learned in how important it is to be prepared.”
Though solar activity was known to occur, its effects weren’t completely understood. The U.S. military didn’t begin researching it until the late 1950s.
READ MORE: Why do we get the northern lights?
On May 18, 1967, a large group of sunspots appeared on the surface of the sun. By May 23, it became evident that these sunspots were highly active and could result in a flare. When the flare did occur, it was observed by the naked eye from observatories in New Mexico and Colorado. A solar radio observatory in Massachusetts reported levels of radio waves that had never been observed before.
The 1960s was a time of intense tension between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, and U.S. aircraft were known to fly with nuclear weapons. When the jamming occurred, military officials believed that the Soviets were to blame, not the sun and considered such action an act of war. The U.S. was already flying continuous alert aircraft armed with nuclear warheads and it put further aircaft on ready-to-launch status, the researchers found.
However, as the solar radio emissions began to wane, so did the jamming, prompting officials to concede that the sun was responsible.
The solar flare did result in a solar storm that affected U.S. radio communications for almost a week, the study found. It was so powerful, in fact, that the northern lights were visible all the way to New Mexico.
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