Extreme solar storm in May 2024: NASA brings together different consequences

The sun's strongest geomagnetic storm for more than 20 years had some serious consequences on Earth a year ago – just hours after an extensive exercise by US authorities on just such an event. This has now been compiled by the US space agency. The solar storm of 10 and 11 May 2024, which was named the Gannon storm, was the first extreme solar storm since 2003 and, among other things, caused GPS-localized tractors in the USA to veer off course. The affected farms incurred average costs of 17,000 US dollars as a result. Two images from the aircraft tracker Flightradar24 clearly show how much air traffic had to be diverted.

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Folgen des großen Sonnensturms für die Luftfahrt (2 Bilder)

The solar storm also caused the Earth's atmosphere to heat up unusually strongly, causing it to expand, NASA explains further. As a result, one of the space agency's research satellites had to be brought down, five months earlier than planned. Other satellites had to use more fuel to maintain their orbits and avoid possible collisions. The strongest electric current in 20 years was generated in the Earth's magnetosphere, and two new rings of electrically charged particles temporarily appeared around our home planet, NASA adds. This observation is important for space travel, as these particles can endanger spaceships or space travelers.

Auroras in completely different colors

The researchers from the USA have also investigated the most visible consequences of the solar storm to date: According to the study, the impressive auroras were not only visible in places where they are otherwise very rare, they also occurred at unusually high altitudes. While they normally occur at an altitude of around 600 km, this time they were observed almost 1000 km high. This also explains the unusual colors, which are due to the molecules excited there. The sensational magenta auroras that occurred in Japan were therefore also unique.

However, the massive eruption of the sun not only had consequences for the Earth, but also for other planets. Mars in particular was directly in the area of influence, which could not only be proven from orbit: From there, the orbiter Maven had detected extremely large numbers of auroras. On the surface, the camera images from the Curiosity rover showed an unusual amount of noise caused by charged solar particles. The device had not measured such strong radiation since its landing in 2012. If humans had been there, they would have been exposed to as much of it as they would have been with 30 X-rays of their upper body.

Even though the geomagnetic storm in mid-May 2024 had a wide range of consequences, it did not cause the catastrophic damage that is feared from even stronger events. Most people will probably remember it for the impressive auroras. The findings now compiled by NASA should help researchers to better understand such eruptions and enable us on Earth to better prepare ourselves. Given our heavy reliance on a wide range of technology, a stronger solar storm could have much more dramatic consequences than solar storms that occurred before the 20th century.

(mho)