THE 1859 SOLAR–TERRESTRIAL DISTURBANCE （1859年的日地干扰）.pdf

Solar Physics (2004) 224: 407–422 C Springer 2005 Review Paper THE 1859 SOLAR–TERRESTRIAL DISTURBANCE AND THE CURRENT LIMITS OF EXTREME SPACE WEATHER ACTIVITY E. W. CLIVER1 and L. SVALGAARD2 1Space Vehicles Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Hanscom AFB, MA 01731-3010, U.S.A. (e-mail: edward.cliver@) 2Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Honohara 3-13, Toyokawa, Aichi 442, Japan (Received 21 September 2004; accepted 8 October 2004) Abstract. It is generally appreciated that the September 1859 solar–terrestrial disturbance, the first recognized space weather event, was exceptionally large. How large and how exceptional? To answer these questions, we compiled rank order lists of the various measures of solar-induced disturbance for events from 1859 to the present. The parameters considered included: magnetic crochet amplitude, solar energetic proton fluence (McCracken et al., 2001a), Sun–Earth disturbance transit time, geomag- netic storm intensity, and low-latitude auroral extent. While the 1859 event has close rivals or superiors in each of the above categories of space weather activity, it is the only documented event of the last ∼150 years that appears at or near the top of all of the lists. Taken together, the top-ranking events in each of the disturbance categories comprise a set of benchmarks for extreme space weather activity. 1. Introduction The study of space climate involves both long-term average behavior and variations about those long-term averages. Here we consider extreme deviations from the