Catastrophic

Now, Tim Heaton at the University of Leeds, UK, and his colleagues have found evidence of a solar storm almost twice as large as the next largest Miyake event, in pine tree trunks in the southern French alps.

“We don’t totally know what would happen if a similar storm happened today,” says Heaton. “Some people think they would be absolutely catastrophic, cause huge, month-long blackouts to half the globe and destroy the solar panels on our satellites and put them permanently out of action.” Other predictions suggest much less disruption, but there is a lot of uncertainty, says Heaton.
–New Scientist