The solar storms of May 2024 were a series of powerful
solar storms with extreme
solar flares and
geomagnetic storm components that occurred from 10–13 May 2024 during
solar cycle 25. The geomagnetic storm was the most powerful to affect Earth since
March 1989, and produced
aurorae
An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in polar regions of Earth, high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display ...
at far more equatorial latitudes than usual in both the
Northern
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a ra ...
and
Southern Hemispheres.
Solar flares and coronal mass ejections
On 8 May 2024, a
solar active region
An active region is a temporary region in the Sun's atmosphere characterized by a strong and complex magnetic field. They are often associated with sunspots and are commonly the source of violent eruptions such as coronal mass ejections and solar ...
which had been assigned the
NOAA
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...
region number 13664 (AR3664) produced an
X1.0-class and multiple M-class
solar flares and launched several
coronal mass ejections
A coronal mass ejection (CME) is a significant release of plasma (physics), plasma and accompanying magnetic field from the Sun's Solar corona, corona into the heliosphere. CMEs are often associated with solar flares and other forms of solar ac ...
(CMEs) toward Earth. On 9 May, the active region produced an X2.25- and X1.12-class flare each associated with a full-halo CME. On 10 May, the region produced an X3.98-class flare, and on 11 May at 01:23
UTC it produced another X-class flare of magnitude 5.4–5.7 with another asymmetrical full-halo CME. The region also caused an S1
solar radiation storm with spikes reaching S2. On 14 May, as the most active region 3664 rotated beyond the sun's western limb, the strongest flare occurred, an X8.7, causing level R3 (strong) radio blackouts.
Geomagnetic storm
As a result of the
interplanetary magnetic field reaching a magnitude of (nT), with the component along Earth's magnetic axis oriented south reaching as much as , the moderately high
solar wind density, and the solar wind speed reaching between 11 and 12 May (UTC time), the event was classified as a G5-class geomagnetic storm (''K''
p = 9), making it the most intense storm since the
2003 Halloween solar storms.
Several other CMEs were expected to reach Earth on 11 and 12 May.
Comparison to other geomagnetic storms
The
disturbance storm time index
The disturbance storm time (Dst, Kyoto Dst) index is a measure in the context of space weather. It gives information about the strength of the ring current around Earth caused by solar protons and electrons.
The ring current around Earth produces ...
(Dst index) is a measure in the context of space weather. A negative Dst index means that
Earth's magnetic field is weakened. This is particularly the case during solar storms, with a higher negative Dst index indicating a stronger solar storm.
The
2003 Halloween solar storms had a peak Dst index of −383 nT, although a second storm on 20 November 2003 reached −422 nT while not reaching G5-class. The
March 1989 geomagnetic storm had a peak Dst index of −589 nT, while the
May 1921 geomagnetic storm
The three-day May 1921 geomagnetic storm, also known as the New York Railroad Storm, was caused by the impact of an extraordinarily powerful coronal mass ejection on Earth's magnetosphere. It occurred on 13–15 May as part of solar cycle 15, and ...
has been estimated to have had a peak Dst index of . Estimates for the peak Dst index of the
Carrington Event superstorm of 1859 are between and .
The May 2024 solar storms reached a peak Dst index of at 03:00 UTC on 11 May.
The
''A''p-index of 11 May 2024 was 271, higher than the ''A''
p-indexes of 13 and 14 March 1989, significantly higher than the ''A''
p-indexes of 29 and 30 October and 20 November 2003, and the second-highest ever recorded, after the ''A''
p-index of 13 November 1960, which was 280.
Aurora sightings
Three CMEs from 8 May reached Earth on 10 May 2024, causing severe to extreme geomagnetic storms with bright and very long-lasting aurorae.
In
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
, aurorae were seen across the
United States as far south as the
Florida Keys
The Florida Keys are a coral cay archipelago located off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and e ...
,
as well as from the
Yucatán Peninsula in
Mexico,
The Bahamas,
Jamaica,
and
Puerto Rico. The aurora was also seen in
Hawaii.
Aurorae were seen across
Europe from as far south as
Portugal,
Spain, and
Sardinia. Aurorae were also visible in
Algeria and the
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...
in
Africa.
In
Asia, aurorae could be seen from
Turkey,
Cyprus,
Iran,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, northern
India,,
South Korea, and across northern
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
,
including near the cities of
Urumqi and
Beijing.
In
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, aurorae were seen as far north as
Townsville and
Mackay Mackay may refer to:
*Clan Mackay, the Scottish clan from which the surname "MacKay" derives
Mackay may also refer to:
Places Australia
* Mackay Region, a local government area
** Mackay, Queensland, a city in the above region
*** Mackay Airport ...
in
Queensland, while in the rest of the Southern Hemisphere aurorae were seen in
New Zealand,
Chile,
Argentina,
South Africa,
and as far north as
New Caledonia
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, map_alt = Location of New Caledonia
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, subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...
,
Uruguay, southern
Brazil, and
Namibia.
While aurorae were able to be seen on camera from many locations across the globe, at locations farther away from the poles where the aurora is less bright, the aurora can often appear
desaturated,
achromatic, or even invisible to the naked eye as a result of the
Purkinje effect.
Camera technology has improved since the last G5-class geomagnetic storm in
2003
File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...
, with even standard cell phone cameras having enough sensitivity to pick up the colours of an aurora.
Consequently, images of aurorae were spread widely across
social media, with much public excitement being generated during the event. The ability to document aurorae at such a wide scale has provided a large opportunity to learn more about the phenomenon.
Impact
The storm negatively affected ground-based broadcasting and two-way radio communications, especially on the
HF band and to a lesser extent the
VHF
Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter.
Frequencies immediately below VHF ...
and
UHF
Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...
bands, because it increased the density of the D layer of the
ionosphere
The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an ...
, causing absorption and thus interfering with
propagation.
In Canada, power companies
BC Hydro and
Hydro-Québec
Hydro-Québec is a public utility that manages the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in the Canadian province of Quebec, as well as the export of power to portions of the Northeast United States.
It was established by the ...
stated that they had prepared for the storm, and monitored it as its ejecta struck Earth on 10–11 May. Unlike in 1989 where
a previous solar storm caused a nine-hour long power outage in
Québec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...
, no outages were reported as a result of the storm's effects.
In New Zealand,
Transpower declared a grid emergency, and took some transmission lines out of service as a precaution against the storm.
In the United States, telecommunications companies
AT&T and
T-Mobile stated that they were prepared to respond to disruptions in their networks, but it was predicted that significant impacts to cell service were unlikely because the networks rely on different frequencies than the HF bands affected by the solar storm. While the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that there were power grid irregularities and degradation in
GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...
and
high-frequency radio communications,
both the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the
United States Department of Energy reported no significant impacts to the population.
Agricultural users of
John Deere
Deere & Company, doing business as John Deere (), is an American corporation that manufactures agricultural machinery, heavy equipment, forestry machinery, diesel engines, drivetrains (axles, transmissions, gearboxes) used in heavy equipment, ...
RTK GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...
equipment reported significantly degraded positional accuracy during the geomagnetic storm. As the GPS receivers are used to guide tractors in
precision agriculture, certain agricultural workers were forced to suspend
planting activities entirely.
University of Victoria researchers discovered that the geomagnetic storm triggered compasses in sub-sea observatories deployed as deep as 2.7 km under the ocean’s surface.
Some
aerial drone users flying during the storm experienced unusual behavior, including difficulty maintaining a stable hover, disruption of GPS signals, and in some cases a sudden loss of control which resulted in a crash. Drones rely on GPS and magnetic signals to maintain position during flight, which are affected by geomagnetic activity.
At 00:19 UTC on 13 May, the
GOES-16 satellite, the primary operational geostationary
weather satellite in the GOES East position, providing a view centered on the Americas, stopped transmitting all data. The transmission of data resumed nearly 2 hours later at 02:00 UTC. There was a second loss of data transmission shortly after, lasting 11 minutes from 03:19 UTC to 03:30 UTC.
Other impacts to satellite services include
Starlink's fleet of low-orbiting satellites, which experienced degraded service because of the intensity of the solar storms, but remained operational.
The storm caused electrical problems for
ESA's
Gaia spacecraft.
Gallery
Auroras were visible in many regions around the world, and far from the magnetic poles. These figures demonstrate the spread of the aurorae on the night of 10 and 11 May. Captions indicate
geographic latitude
In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north–south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pole ...
(GLAT) first, and
magnetic latitude (MLAT) second, using the quasi-dipole latitude of
IGRF-13 model.
Notes
See also
*
List of solar storms
References
External links
Interactive map of locations where aurora sightings were reportedderived fro
an open-source database
{{solar storms, state=collapsed
2024 in science
Geomagnetic storms
May 2024 events
Articles containing video clips