I will never forget the night of May 10, 2024. I remember having dinner with a friend and talking about the potential to see the northern dawn in the northeast of Ohio, a conversation that I had never had before or was simply possible. It seemed unlikely, but earlier that week, the possibility caught my attention when I wrote one of my first -time stories that highlighted the space climate triggered by the sun.
As a meteorologist, the space climate was not something I spoke often, but the more I was learning that week, the more I fascinated how powerful solar beans from the groups of sun spots almost). When the meteorate prediction of the Oceanic and Atmospheric National Administration (SWPC) issued a geomagnetic storm surveillance for a quite powerful solar event on the weekend of Mother’s Day and asked me to inform you about it, I had no idea what you would write.
The solar storm of May 2024, also known as Gannon Storm or the solar storm of Mother’s Day, is now classified by NOAA as one of the most memorable solar events in history, and potentially the most powerful documented this century. It included a parade of powerful solar flares between May 8 and 11, 2024, which originates in a bestial group of sun spots that measured 17 times wider than the diameter of the earth. According to NOAA, duration of this period of time, there were at least eight coronal mass ejections (CME), which are giant explosions composed of magnetic field and plasma, which were headed to Earth. This resulted in the creation of extreme geomagnetic storm conditions (G5), the highest on the NOAA meteorological scale.
“Gannon’s storm was a spectacular event in the sense that so many people could see the dawn, as special ones that live in areas that generally do not see it,” said Mike Cook, the leader of the space climate in Miter Corporation, to Space.com. “But, beyond that, it was a reminder that our sun is able to produce very disruptive events that can affect our critical infrastructure.”
While the photos of the north of the world light illuminated social networks and the headlines of the news, also caught the attention to the impacts that a storm of this magnitude can have on our planet and human civilization. NOAA SWPC’s scientists and forecasts were accredited by providing warnings acquired by the solar storm, allowing end users such as Electric Red Operators to take the necessary precautions to avoid a potentially paralyzing electric.
“In SWPC, we continually work to help operators protect our critical infrastructure from such storms,” said Clinton Wallace, SWPC director of NOAA, Space.com. “More than ten years of planning and preparation paid. Thanks to early warnings and strong teamwork, The People Who Run Critical Systems Like Power, Farming, and Satellites were Uble to Prevent Most of the Damage from The May 202t, ITS That’s, this This’s this, this’s that’s, this’s that’s, this’s that’s, Atter’s, This, this’s that’s, Atter’s Things, This’s That’s, Atter’s, This’s, Atter, that is, that is, that is, it is that is, it is that is, it is that is, it is it is, that is, that is, that is That is that is.
However, as with hurricanes and severe climatic events, impacts can still be felt even when we are as prepared as possible.
Tamitha Skov, a research scientist withdrawn from the Aerospace Corporation and space climate professor at the University of Millersville in Pennsylvania, told Space.com that, although there were many positive impacts of the event, they were eeno-tan brothers. While there was a victory in terms of how resistant it was the North America electricity network in front of the storm, the agricultural industry touched a success as vulnerabilities with the GPS systems that help guide the tractors were exposed when the solar storm came to the earth.
“The fact that we did not have important waterfall failures of the network is an indicator that we have successfully hardening our network that in years. Industry,” Skov said.
“We have known about the vulnerability of GNSS for decades; however, it is now so integrated into precision agricultural equipment and practices that a loss of satellite quality can cause a complete agricultural industry Then the impact can be extremely significant, the harvest performance can be extremely significant “.”
Read more: The powerful solar storms are a nightmare for farmers. ‘Our tractors acted as if they were possessed’
Gannon’s storm certainly increased the talk during the last year on the space climate, evident in the wave of publications on social networks and news articles that continue to arise when there is the potential that a geomagnetic storm occurs. Aurora hunters continue as excited as storm hunters when there is the possibility of a mother nature show, and scientists say this has created a great opportunity to educate the public about the space climate.
“Many people could see the dawn that would not normally do it, and they are asking questions about why this happens? Why did it look different? Why can I see it with my phone and not my eyes? Why is this red here and green there?” Kelly Korreck, scientist of the NASA headquarters program, told Space.com all these questions and all this curiosity, we love to share the science of NASA in all that and really help explain what is happening, so we are al.
While bone has a lot of knowledge and new data obtained from the Gannon storm, scientists say there is still much more to discover. Althegh storm as powerful as this is not a frequent occurrence, with the possibility of more in the future (and perhaps some day even more extreme than this), the more we can learn how Oins Aury’s life affects.
“Although the successful grid avoided a feeling of such magnitude, it did show that the general public fulfilled that a power blackout could with future storms of this or a stronger magnitude,” said Shawn Anator, NOAA’s.
“The press and the media are becoming more knowledge, and the emergency management authorities plan more and more meteorological storms of space. This is something very good and helps prepare the resilience of our nations.”
