page_title: Solar storm of August 1972
section_title: Military operations
hierarchical_section_title: Solar storm of August 1972 / Impacts / Military operations
caption_attribution_description: English: An American naval mine explodes in North Vietnams Haiphong Harbor during Operation End Sweep, photographed by the automatic mine locator camera aboard an American CH-53A Sea Stallion helicopter. It is believed to be the only explosion of a mine during End Sweep. The Mark 105 hydrofoil minesweeping sled the helicopter is towing is at right.
context_page_description: The solar storms of August 1972 were a historically powerful series of solar storms with intense to extreme solar flare, solar particle event, and geomagnetic storm components in early August 1972, during solar cycle 20. The storm caused widespread electric‐ and communication‐grid disturbances through large portions of North America as well as satellite disruptions. On August 4, 1972, the storm caused the accidental detonation of numerous U.S. naval mines near Haiphong, North Vietnam. The coronal cloud's transit time from the Sun to the Earth is the fastest ever recorded.
context_section_description: The U.S. Air Force's Vela nuclear detonation detection satellites mistook that an explosion occurred, but this was quickly dealt with by personnel monitoring the data in real-time.
  The U.S. Navy concluded, as shown in declassified documents, that the seemingly spontaneous detonation of dozens of Destructor magnetic-influence sea mines (DSTs) within about 30 seconds in the Hon La area (magnetic latitude ≈9°) was highly likely the result of an intense solar storm. One account claims that 4,000 mines were detonated. It was known that solar storms caused terrestrial geomagnetic disturbances but it was as yet unknown to the military whether these effects could be sufficiently intense. It was confirmed as possible in a meeting of Navy investigators at the NOAA Space Environment Center (SEC) as well as by other facilities and experts.
caption: American naval mine (left) explodes in Haiphong during U.S. Navy minesweeping (March 1973)
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