2. • On March 13, 1989 the entire province of
Quebec, Canada suffered an electrical power
blackout.
• The Quebec Blackout was different from
regular ones in North Canada because this
one was caused by a solar storm.

3. • A sunstorm is scientifically known as a geomagnetic
storm.
• A geomagnetic storm is a temporary disturbance of
the Earth's magnetosphere caused by a disturbance in
the interplanetary medium.
• The increase in the solar wind pressure initially
compresses the magnetosphere.
• The solar wind magnetic field will interact with the
Earth’s magnetic field and transfer an increased amount
of energy into the magnetosphere.
• This may be due to Coronal Mass Ejection.

4.  On Friday March 10, 1989 astronomers witnessed a powerful explosion on
the sun.
 Within minutes, tangled magnetic forces on the sun had released a billion-
ton cloud of gas.
 The storm cloud rushed out from the sun, straight towards Earth, at a
million miles an hour.
 The solar flare that accompanied the outburst immediately caused short-
wave radio interference, including the jamming of radio signals from Radio
Free Europe into Russia.
 On the evening of Monday, March 12 the vast cloud of solar plasma finally
struck Earth's magnetic field.
 The violence of this 'geomagnetic storm' caused spectacular Aurora
Borealis .
 Just after 2:44 a.m. on March 13, the currents found a weakness in the
electrical power grid of Quebec. There was a 12-hour blackout that followed.

5. The After effects
• The 13 march 1989 sunstorm caused major and drastic side
effects.
• There was a half a day power blackout in Quebec.
• In space, some satellites actually tumbled out of control for
several hours.
• Across the United States from coast to coast, over 200
power grid problems erupted within minutes of the start of
the March 13 storm.
• A sensor on one of the tanks supplying hydrogen to a fuel
cell in the Space Shuttle Discovery was showing unusually
high pressure readings on March 13. The problem went
away just as mysteriously after the solar storm subsided.

6. • In 2008 the five THEMIS spacecraft of NASA
detected a breach in Earth’s protective
magnetic field four times wider than the Earth
itself.
• This will cause major geomagnetic storms in
the future.
• This can cause northern lights (aurora
borealis) in Mexico.

7. The End
Hope you have
enjoyed
the presentation.

8. Created by :
Voyager 2
Class VI
Dps Dwarka
Image Source :
Google Images
NASA website
Information (partly) :
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (website)
Future Predictions Info. (partly) :
NASA website
Quebec Blackout Info. (partly) :
Daily Science (website)