The solar storm that nearly triggered World War III

A new study reveals that the solar storm of 1967 fired all alarms and was about to trigger a nuclear response from the United States. Fortunately, scientific information arrived on time at the highest levels.

On May 23, 1967 the radars system of US Ballistic Missile Early Warning System(BMEWS) early warning underwent a sudden power failure. Suddenly the whole system to detect a possible nuclear attack by the Soviet Union from the Arctic appeared to be being intercepted or tampered with, what has been considered already as an act of war. Within seconds, the army launched the protocol strictly established for a case like this. The Air Force put its bombers on alert and its missile systems pointing to the USSR were placed in preparation for launch. Only an instant before the tragedy triggered someone got to talk to the high command and stopped the escalation: the attack did not come from the Soviets, but a huge explosion on the sun's surface.

"The information has been collected from retired military officers who were service that day"

All these events were unknown to the public until researcher Delores Knipp and his team have revealed in a study published in the journal Space Weather. The team reconstructs the events caused by the large solar storm of 1967, the sun's violence disrupted radio communications in much of the northern hemisphere for a week. A few days earlier, on May 18, scientists working for the government observing solar activity detected a group of unusually large spots and predicted the possibility that a large flare produced a geomagnetic storm. Wave from this solar plasma into the Earth was so intense that it could be easily seen from several points of the US and created an emission of unprecedented radio waves in an observatory at Massachusetts. The entry of solar wind caused auroras which were visible at latitudes as far as the southern New Mexico pole.

For the research authors, this circumstance is a good case of why space research is vital to US security. The army had observed the solar activity since the late 1950s and 60s the Air Force had created a department of Aircraft Warning Service (AWS) giving daily reports on solar flares. All this information was supplied regularly to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and it was precisely this system, according to the study, which prevented the potential May 23 nuclear war escalation with USSR. According to its research - collected thanks to the testimony of retired military officers who were service that day - the information timely reached the high command and could even reach President Johnson to disable the alarms.

"Half the sun has blown up," said Colonel Snyder.

Retired Colonel Arnold L. Snyder , who worked in the service of solar observation was there that day of service. " I remember specifically having responded nervously: 'Yes, half the sun has blown up ' and then relate the details of a calmer and quantitatively." "Had it not been for the fact of having invested very early in the observations and predictions of solar and geomagnetic storms, the impact would have been certainly much bigger , " explains the study 's lead author. "The lesson learned from that episode is the importance of being prepared." 

Reference: Space Weather