Talk:August 1972 solar storms

A fact from August 1972 solar storms appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 15 December 2018 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that a record-breaking solar storm of August 1972 is thought to have caused the spontaneous detonation of numerous U.S. Navy sea mines in North Vietnam?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2018/December. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Solar storm of August 1972.

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Did you know

Greetings, Evolauxia. Thank you for your beautiful description of this storm. I apologize if there was a better name. Please feel free to move this wherever you see fit. This article seems to be a natural candidate for DYK. Are you interested in pursuing that? I am tied up with an exam so cannot be much help. But I'll try to read all your sources. The Navy documents might have a copyright-free map or photograph. Again my thanks! -SusanLesch (talk) 02:44, 18 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

First question, what is "MR 11976"? I looked around briefly and do not find reliably described regions of the sun. -SusanLesch (talk) 16:46, 18 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. This name is fine, but as seen in the list of solar storms, article naming is not yet uniform.

The article should now be ready for DYK nomination given the cleanup and clarification of language, addition of sources, and sufficient expansion. It's a question of the verbiage to use for DYK, now. It indeed seems like a suitable candidate. Evolauxia (talk) 19:41, 18 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Well done! Thank you for making the nomination. -SusanLesch (talk) 04:15, 19 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Do you prefer no images? This video is free from NASA but is for a different storm. I guess I prefer none to using the wrong pic. -SusanLesch (talk) 04:20, 19 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

You're welcome to add more alternative hooks to the template. For the article I uploaded a photograph of a flare from the series of storms, presumably but not with certainty from the same active sunspot region, but not from the flare that produced the noted geomagnetic storm. I also linked to a video of the same flare, which was remarkable in of itself. I'm reluctant to link in the DYK hook since it's not associated with the same flare, but would not be opposed to adding it since it's definitely associated with the same active period. There is more science and measurement info to be added, including that shocks were observed by the Pioneer 9 and Pioneer 10 probes (at 2.2 AU for the latter). A powerful proton storm was also generated. I presume there are lots of additional data and studies out there to be found on technological impacts as well the heliophysics. Evolauxia (talk) 06:17, 19 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Wow, thank you for the stunning photo. We should add the Pioneers. A polar ozone cavity was reported that might also be of interest. One ALT and your pic added. -SusanLesch (talk) 16:02, 19 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for correcting the lead. I applied your clarification to the DYK hooks (to say coronal cloud in place of solar flare). Are the hooks accurate now? Also, do you want to rename the article to be plural? -SusanLesch (talk) 18:41, 20 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Where does the Cliver paper belong? It's linked in a (single) bullet list after the refs. This storm wasn't in his paper but then I don't understand much of it. -SusanLesch (talk) 00:34, 23 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Right now it's of general interest as it situates the 1972 event by various measures with other extreme events since 1859, but will work an in-line citation as the article is fleshed out. Evolauxia (talk) 04:37, 23 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I looked again and could not find the August 1972 storm in this article, so I paste it here for safekeeping. -SusanLesch (talk) 19:14, 23 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Cliver, E.W.; L. Svalgaard (2004). "The 1859 Solar–Terrestrial Disturbance and the Current Limits of Extreme Space Weather Activity". Sol Phys. 224 (1–2): 407–422. doi:10.1007/s11207-005-4980-z.

Maybe it would work for "further reading." By the way, you got a B class assessment just now from Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Assessment/Requests. The reviewer left you a comment there. Congrats. Well done! -SusanLesch (talk) 00:22, 24 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I'll throw it back in (with others) within the implications section to better place all the parameters in context to other extreme storms and thus for societal relevance. Evolauxia (talk) 06:36, 11 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, Evolauxia. Do you think we can simplify and omit the first heading, "Solar-terrestrial characteristics" and start with "Sunspot region"? -SusanLesch (talk) 23:04, 11 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]