Carrington's Warning — William R. Forstchen

A novel set across the twenty-four hours before the earth is hit by a G7-level solar storm, a "Carrington Event" that will shut down and possibly destroy our world's electrical infrastructure

An immensely powerful solar flare at the G7 level, called a Carrington Event, has been spotted; its devastating effects -- such as severing all electrical lines, destroying communication satellites, and wreaking havoc on modern infrastructure -- will strike the Earth in twenty-four hours. At a global level, nearly all communications will be shut off in the hours between a first visual warning transmitted by solar observatory satellites and the actual impact of the heavily charged CME hitting earth. To try and preserve the infrastructure that our lives are dependent on, everything must go dark. Hospital emergency generators will be disconnected, the entire internet will be turned off, media broadcasts will go dark, and all nuclear reactors will be shut down to standby. The potential for panic and societal breakdown is clear. The story follows several men and women -- a young graduate intern working at the Goddard Space Flight Center, a mid-level officer who represents the Navy, a respected television correspondent -- and how they respond to the crisis as their society descends into violence and chaos.