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The AD775 cosmic event revisited: the Sun is to blame
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Aims. Miyake et al. (2012, Nature, 486, 240, henceforth M12) recently reported, based on 14C data, an extreme cosmic event in about AD775. Using a simple model, M12 claimed that the event was too strong to be caused by a solar flare within the standard theory. This implied a new paradigm of either an impossibly strong solar flare or a very strong cosmic ray event of unknown origin that occurred around AD775. However, as we show, the strength of the event was significantly overestimated by M12. Several subsequent works have attempted to find a possible exotic source for such an event, including a giant cometary impact upon the Sun or a gamma-ray burst, but they are all based on incorrect estimates by M12. We revisit this event with analysis of new datasets and consistent theoretical modelling.
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Whole-process intra-laboratory replicates are available for only ca. 3% of dated tree-ring samples, almost 60% of which were undertaken by UCIAMS-, although inter-laboratory replicates are available for another ca. 3%.
“Whole-process intralaboratory replicates are available for only ca. 3% of dated tree-ring samples, almost 60% of which were undertaken by UCIAMS- (set 8), although inter-laboratory replicates are available for another ca. 3% (Usoskin et al. 2013; Bayliss et al. 2020 in this issue; A. Sookdeo, personal communication; Pearson et al. 2020 in this issue; Friedrich et al. 2020 in this issue).”
From The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve (0–55 cal kBP) (2020) · cites this paper as Usoskin et al. 2013
Section 2, “14 C in German oak,” reports annual oak samples measured independently at laboratories in Mannheim and Zurich, supporting this paper as an example of inter-laboratory measurements. It does not report the claimed 3% frequencies, whole-process intralaboratory replicates, or the 60% UCIAMS share. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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Metadata
- Authors
- Usoskin, I. G., Kromer, B., Ludlow, F., Beer, J., Friedrich, M., Kovaltsov, G. A., Solanki, S. K., & Wacker, L.
- Affiliations
- University of Oulu (FI)
- Curt Engelhorn Centre Archaeometry (DE)
- Harvard University (US)
- Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (CH)
- University of Hohenheim (DE)
- Ioffe Institute (RU)
- Kyung Hee University (KR)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Venue
- Astronomy & Astrophysics
- Publisher
- EDP Sciences
- Published
- 2013-03-18
- Volume
- 552
- Pages
- L3
- ISSN
- 0004-6361 (ISSN-L)
- 1432-0746
- OpenAlex
- W2135968554
- Semantic Scholar
- e187c834f58d97830ae002433dea4ca1bee9d5e8
- Cited by
- 235
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 27 · 2013: 6
- FWCI
- 12.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Astronomy and Astrophysics (publishedVersion)
- Arrow@dit (Dublin Institute of Technology) (acceptedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- DORA Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag)) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Trinity's Access to Research Output (TARA) (Trinity College Dublin) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- Academy of Finland
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Nuclear and High Energy Physics › Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae
- Keywords
- solar flares, cosmic ray events, carbon-14, solar activity, gamma-ray bursts, cometary impacts
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