We are at kp 8.67. The Carrington event was a kp 9

I am not an expert, but it’s worth noting that the kp index has a maximum value of 9. So though the Carrington event had a kp of 9, its intensity on the related (but not capped) HP30/HP60 scale [1] would likely have been higher. [1] https://kp.gfz.de/en/hp30-hp60

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repeekad 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Queue Chernobyl documentary clip measuring the radiation as low because that’s as high the meter went

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wyldfire 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

s/queue/cue/

Though I suppose you could also queue it.

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celsoazevedo 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

3.6 roentgen. Not great, not terrible!

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anonymous344 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

here, take one ö

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qingcharles 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

*skin sloughs off*

	▲	anonym29 23 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		You didn't see any graphite because it's not there!

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kelseydh an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Disturbance storm time index (DST) is a better measure of peak intensity as KP is just a weighted average of the intensity from the last three hours across monitoring stations.

The May 2024 G5 electrical storm had a peak measured DST of −412 nT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_2024_solar_storms

The Carrington Event had an estimated peak DST of −800 nT to −1750 nT, but no one really knows: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event

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keepamovin 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is also related to weaker solar events leading to stronger Earth storms due to Earth's weakening magnetic field.

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echelon 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Have we been having these more recently?

I don't ever recall seeing these in the news so frequently. It feels like there are several a year now. A decade ago, never.

And I also never remember seeing Aurora at my latitudes.

Do we just have better sensing now, or is there some cycle on a period longer than a few years? Or maybe I'm crazy and just never noticed.

	▲	0manrho 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Mid to late 2025 was the peak of an 11 year solar cycle (25th one since we've started keeping track). We're on the trailing end of that peak activity now, which is why the past year/several months has seemed so active compared to recent years past, and should decrease significantly (in frequency and intensity) as 2026 progresses. There was also a fairly significant geomagnetic storm back in November of 2025 as well. You can see the data here at NOAA's Space Weather site https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-cycle-progression
	▲	awesome_dude 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		We've just passed the 11 year peak - the sun spot activity has a period of around 11 years.