In May 2024,
a spectacular multicolored light show flooded the skies across the world.
These displays are known as the auroras.
They’re usually seen near the polar regions,
but that May, skywatchers spotted the glowing lights far from Earth’s poles.
People were witnessing the biggest geomagnetic storm in over 20 years.
This storm was so intense. It was the most intense in two decades.
This was one of those large events that we've been talking about for years.
It all began from this active region on the Sun.
Active regions are known for having intense magnetic fields,
and the more tangled those fields become,
the more likely they are to erupt.
We watched the active region evolve
and we thought that this might be something to watch.
It might be something active.
Eventually, the active region unleashed a chain of huge solar eruptions
directly towards us.
What made it so strong was the fact that there was so much energy put off by the Sun.
It was really great conditions for the perfect storm.
On May 10, the eruptions reached Earth,
triggering a global disruption to Earth's magnetic field
known as a geomagnetic storm.
It was rated a “G5,” the rarest and strongest type.
The powerful storm pushed auroras to appear in unusual places
like Arizona in the United States
and Perth in Australia.
That energy interacted with the Earth
and created the aurora
and caused all sorts of disturbances that we felt here on the ground.
The storm caused some high-voltage lines to trip and transformers to overheat.
GPS-guided tractors also veered off-course,
further disrupting crucial planting time
that had already been delayed by heavy rains that spring.
In the air, trans-Atlantic flights rerouted
due to risks of high radiation exposure
and communication and navigation disruptions.
Farther up, NASA’s GOLD spacecraft saw Earth’s upper atmosphere get unusually hot.
The temperature 100 miles up in the thermosphere
usually peaks at 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit.
But during the storm, it reached 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit.
The heating caused the atmosphere to expand, which affected satellites.
There were thousands of satellites that had to move their orbits because the storm was coming through.
The storm also affected the space beyond Earth.
It created two new temporary belts of energetic particles around our planet,
adding to Earth’s two permanent ones, which are known as the Van Allen radiation belts.
The particles in these belts can harm orbiting satellites
and astronauts heading for deep space,
so NASA studies them closely.
As the Sun rotated, the active region eventually moved away from Earth
and redirected its outbursts towards Mars.
On Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover saw solar particles from the storm.
The rover also recorded the biggest surge of radiation since it landed in 2012.
If an astronaut had been on the Martian surface,
they would have received a radiation dose equivalent to 30 chest X-rays at once.
With spacecraft throughout the solar system
and modern cameras in so many people’s pockets,
the storm was the most well-documented in history.
There's lots of data.
We're able to actually use that data to understand things
and predict more and more how this is going to affect our Earth.
Although the storm passed within days,
NASA will continue to learn from the observations for years to come,
helping us better prepare for the next big storm.