What Happened During the Biggest Geomagnetic Storm in Over 20 Years

  • Released Friday, May 9, 2025
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On May 10, 2024, the first G5 or “severe” geomagnetic storm in over two decades hit Earth. The event did not cause any catastrophic damages, but it did produce surprising effects on Earth. The storm, which has been called the best-documented geomagnetic storm in history, spread auroras to unusually low latitudes and produced effects spanning from the ground to near-Earth space. Data captured during this historic event will be analyzed for years to come, revealing new lessons about the nature of geomagnetic storms and how best to weather them.

Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

Music credits: “Set in the Sky” by Nicholas Smith [PRS]; “Constant Motion”, “Future Now”, and “Currents” by Ben Niblett [PRS] and Jon Cotton [PRS]; “Bow Down To Me” by Max Cameron Concors [ASCAP] and Victoria Faith Beaumont [PRS]; “Moto Perpetuo” by Laurent Dury [SACEM].

Aurora imagery is used with permission. Aurora credits in order of appearance: Neil Zeller, Randell Sean Inoc, Xicao Liu, Bill Dunford, Shelley Tonkin, Alistair Luckman, Shane Turgeon, Kimberly Sibbald, Kylie Reid, Adam Block, Darius Yeoh, William Hudson, Quinn Keon.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Friday, May 9, 2025.
This page was last updated on Friday, May 9, 2025 at 4:58 PM EDT.