This is a data sonification of the largest solar storm in recorded history, in collaboration with Loud Numbers and distributed on the Camembert Electrique label. Details below:

In 1859, the Earth experienced the strongest solar storm in recorded history. Telegraph stations caught fire and auroras were sighted as far south as the Caribbean. The storm became known as the Carrington Event.

In 2012, a Carrington-sized storm narrowly missed the Earth. If it had hit, damage to humankind’s large-scale electronic infrastructure would have run to trillions of dollars, with a recovery time of four to ten years.

To better understand severe solar storms, scientists Karen Aplin and Giles Harrison digitised the magnetic records of the Carrington Event from Flagstaff Observatory in Melbourne.

You’re about to hear that data turned into music. It runs from 28 August to 6 September, 1859. The more intense the music, the more intense the disturbance to Earth’s magnetic field.

This is The Carrington Event.

For more information about how this artwork was created, visit:
http://loudnumbers.net/carringtonevent

To buy the track, and hear the Loud Numbers version, visit:
https://camembertelectrique.bandcamp....

Concept & Music
Ben Dexter Cooley (aka St. Silva) // @st.silvamusic

Animation & Editing
Nate Hicks (aka Silence_Castor // @silence_castor

Mastering
Tommy Williams // Sorting Room Studios

Data
K L Aplin, R G Harrison (2014)
http://doi.org/10.1093/astrogeo/atu218