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When you think of storms, the first thing that comes to mind is torrential rain, you know, a typical summer's day in Britain. As it happens, and somewhat ironically for us Brits, it turns out it should be solar storms we should be worrying about.
This time last year, experts from 30 separate US government agencies, including NASA, gathered together to simulate a real-life geomagnetic storm.
Jamie Favors, director of NASA’s Space Weather Program explained “The plan was to run through a hypothetical scenario, finding where our existing processes worked and where they needed improvement,”
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But, in an unexpected turn of events, the joint-agency simulation quickly changed from a simulation to a real life event, as the first G5 (severe) geomagnetic storm in more than 20 years hit Earth.
If you've never heard of a geomagnetic storm before, you'll be excused. In fairness, people don't often stand in the queues in Tesco discussing 'what lovely geomagnetic weather we're having today' although, perhaps they should.
According to people who have a lot more going on upstairs than me, a geomagnetic storm is a temporary disturbance in Earth’s magnetosphere caused by solar wind shock waves and magnetic clouds interacting with Earth’s magnetic field.
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Geomagnetic storms are triggered by solar activity like coronal mass ejections - large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun’s corona, the Space Weather Prediction Center explains - and solar flares, which send charged particles toward Earth.
Conveniently, just as Earth's brightest minds gathered together to learn about what happens when a geomagnetic storm hit, well, a geomagnetic storm hit. Handy timing, right?
The storm reached Earth on May 10, 2024, which resulted in a G5-class geomagnetic event; the highest on the scale.
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The storm caused auroras to be visible at unusually low latitudes, including regions as far south as Florida and northern India.
Widespread auroral displays are rare and have been documented through thousands of citizen-submitted reports, helping scientists to study the storms global impact.
The storm's effects extended beyond people getting a stunning view of auroras without needing to take a flight.
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It also led to heightened drag on satellites, causing orbital decay. For instance, the Hubble Space Telescope experienced a doubling in its rate of orbital decay, descending approximately 80 meters per day compared to the usual 40 meters.
GPS systems and high-frequency radio communications also faced issues, with farmers using modern GPS enabled tractors reporting their vehicles veering off-course.
In-fact, according to NASA, farmers impacted by the geomagnetic storm reported losses in the region of $17,000 (just under £13,000).
The event underscored the need for improved space weather forecasting. NASA, in collaboration with international partners, is developing AI-based models like DAGGER (Deep Learning Geomagnetic Perturbation) to predict geomagnetic storms with better accuracy, in which they aim to provide 30-minute warnings before a storm is due to hit.
