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Tree-rings reveal two strong solar proton events in 7176 and 5259 BCE

Brehm, Nicolas ; Christl, Marcus ; Knowles, Timothy D.J. ; Casanova, Emmanuelle ; Evershed, Richard P. ; Adolphi, Florian LU ; Muscheler, Raimund LU orcid ; Synal, Hans Arno ; Mekhaldi, Florian LU and Paleari, Chiara I. LU , et al. (2022) In Nature Communications 13(1).
Abstract

The Sun sporadically produces eruptive events leading to intense fluxes of solar energetic particles (SEPs) that dramatically disrupt the near-Earth radiation environment. Such events have been directly studied for the last decades but little is known about the occurrence and magnitude of rare, extreme SEP events. Presently, a few events that produced measurable signals in cosmogenic radionuclides such as 14C, 10Be and 36Cl have been found. Analyzing annual 14C concentrations in tree-rings from Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, Russia, and the USA we discovered two spikes in atmospheric 14C occurring in 7176 and 5259 BCE. The ~2% increases of atmospheric 14C recorded for... (More)

The Sun sporadically produces eruptive events leading to intense fluxes of solar energetic particles (SEPs) that dramatically disrupt the near-Earth radiation environment. Such events have been directly studied for the last decades but little is known about the occurrence and magnitude of rare, extreme SEP events. Presently, a few events that produced measurable signals in cosmogenic radionuclides such as 14C, 10Be and 36Cl have been found. Analyzing annual 14C concentrations in tree-rings from Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, Russia, and the USA we discovered two spikes in atmospheric 14C occurring in 7176 and 5259 BCE. The ~2% increases of atmospheric 14C recorded for both events exceed all previously known 14C peaks but after correction for the geomagnetic field, they are comparable to the largest event of this type discovered so far at 775 CE. These strong events serve as accurate time markers for the synchronization with floating tree-ring and ice core records and provide critical information on the previous occurrence of extreme solar events which may threaten modern infrastructure.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Nature Communications
volume
13
issue
1
article number
1196
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • scopus:85125976476
  • pmid:35256613
ISSN
2041-1723
DOI
10.1038/s41467-022-28804-9
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).
id
61cb6e5b-7758-4e4e-b856-cab73684035b
date added to LUP
2022-06-14 09:17:25
date last changed
2024-06-27 07:54:06
@article{61cb6e5b-7758-4e4e-b856-cab73684035b,
  abstract     = {{<p>The Sun sporadically produces eruptive events leading to intense fluxes of solar energetic particles (SEPs) that dramatically disrupt the near-Earth radiation environment. Such events have been directly studied for the last decades but little is known about the occurrence and magnitude of rare, extreme SEP events. Presently, a few events that produced measurable signals in cosmogenic radionuclides such as <sup>14</sup>C, <sup>10</sup>Be and <sup>36</sup>Cl have been found. Analyzing annual <sup>14</sup>C concentrations in tree-rings from Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, Russia, and the USA we discovered two spikes in atmospheric <sup>14</sup>C occurring in 7176 and 5259 BCE. The ~2% increases of atmospheric <sup>14</sup>C recorded for both events exceed all previously known <sup>14</sup>C peaks but after correction for the geomagnetic field, they are comparable to the largest event of this type discovered so far at 775 CE. These strong events serve as accurate time markers for the synchronization with floating tree-ring and ice core records and provide critical information on the previous occurrence of extreme solar events which may threaten modern infrastructure.</p>}},
  author       = {{Brehm, Nicolas and Christl, Marcus and Knowles, Timothy D.J. and Casanova, Emmanuelle and Evershed, Richard P. and Adolphi, Florian and Muscheler, Raimund and Synal, Hans Arno and Mekhaldi, Florian and Paleari, Chiara I. and Leuschner, Hanns Hubert and Bayliss, Alex and Nicolussi, Kurt and Pichler, Thomas and Schlüchter, Christian and Pearson, Charlotte L. and Salzer, Matthew W. and Fonti, Patrick and Nievergelt, Daniel and Hantemirov, Rashit and Brown, David M. and Usoskin, Ilya and Wacker, Lukas}},
  issn         = {{2041-1723}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{12}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Nature Communications}},
  title        = {{Tree-rings reveal two strong solar proton events in 7176 and 5259 BCE}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28804-9}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41467-022-28804-9}},
  volume       = {{13}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}