by Libby Palmer
The world may have come closer to the brink of nuclear disaster than previously thought after a 1967 solar storm jammed radar and radio communications at the height of the Cold War, according to new research.
The largely unknown incident could have led to a disastrous military conflict if it had not been for the US Air Force's budding efforts to monitor the Sun's activity, claims the study by the University of Colorado.
On May 23, 1967, the Air Force prepared aircraft for a possible nuclear attack, thinking the nation's surveillance radars in polar regions were being jammed by the Soviet Union.
A potentially deadly catastrophe was narrowly averted when military space weather forecasters warned that radar and radio communications could be disrupted by the solar storm, resulting in the planes being stood down.
Excerpted by Mod8http://www.wired.co.uk/article/solar-storm-in-1967-almost-sparked-a-nuclear-war
