Strange sounds were recorded during a strong geomagnetic storm

For centuries, observers of the Arctic sky have from time to time reported strange sounds filling the air when the Northern lights danced overhead. Hissing, cracking and even loud "pops" were heard and recorded. 

Evan Ludes from South Dakota heard strange noises on November 4 after a solar outburst, which was called a "Cannibal" outburst, hit the Earth's magnetic field, causing a strong geomagnetic storm:

"After driving off the highway to watch the pulsating green aurora, I turned off the car engine and heard a buzzing and chirping," says Ludes. 

"At first I thought that the noise was created by birds, which would be very unusual for the middle of the night. Upon further investigation, it turned out that the sound comes from nearby power lines or barbed wire fences."

Everyone had heard buzzing near power lines before, but in this case the sounds were modulated by events in the sky. 

"The noise seemed to be synchronized with the fast pulses of auroral light," says Ludes. "It was very unusual."

Auroral sounds cause a lot of controversy. Despite countless reports over the years, researchers have tried to explain this phenomenon and have sometimes suggested that they may be imaginary. 

However, recently Honorary Professor Unto K. Laine from the Finnish Aalto University has shown that at least some of these sounds are real. Using arrays of microphones in Finland, he recorded cases of "geomagnetic thunder". 

The chirping recorded by Ludes seems to be a different type of noise, but no less authentic. 

While scientists, instead of studying the phenomenon, argue whether it is real or not, they should have looked into history and it would have become clear to them that these strange sounds during a powerful geomagnetic storm were harbingers of the fact that the storm was really powerful and everything could have ended much worse.

The largest recorded geomagnetic storm occurred on September 1, 1859. This storm was named the Carrington event in honor of British astronomer Richard Carrington, who was the first to record a colossal solar flare and linked it to geomagnetic disturbances on Earth.

"People in the northeastern United States could only read newspapers by the light of the aurora borealis," says Daniel Baker from the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado.

Geomagnetic disturbances were so strong that telegraph operators reported sparks escaping from the equipment. Some voltage drops even led to the ignition of the equipment.

All telegraph systems in Europe and North America are out of order. The geomagnetic storm also caused one of the brightest auroras on the planet. For example, in Colorado, the miners decided that it was dawn and went to work.

The auroras were so strong that they were visible in the Caribbean, Mexico, Hawaii, southern Japan, southern China and further south as far as Colombia. Auroras were also visible in Australia and near the equator in the Southern Hemisphere.

Repeat the Carrington event in our days, the world's high-tech infrastructure will collapse. and humanity will go straight to the Stone Age.