The May 11 solar storm, seen on its way to Earth

May 16. () –

Located between the Sun and Earth, the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) captured the entire burst of the largest solar storm to hit Earth in 20 years.

During the weekend of May 10-12, 2024, colorful auroras illuminated Earth’s protective atmosphere, visible even at low latitudes for this phenomenon typical of the polar regions, while spacecraft had to withstand the impact of solar winds incredibly strong and electromagnetic radiation, as reported by the ESA.

In the sequence taken by SOHO, the Sun can be seen spewing clouds of particles, and on May 11 an extremely large explosion was ejected in the direction of Earth. The bright spots to the left and right are Jupiter and Venus.

This video was taken by SOHO’s LASCO instrument, a coronagraph formed by a telescope with a disc that blocks the center of vision. By blocking direct light from the Sun, the instrument can see light from the surrounding corona.

For context, only three severe geomagnetic storms have been observed so far in this solar cycle that began in 2019; the last was a brief event in March 2023. However, the May 11 eL was the first G4 level advisory issued by NOAA since 2005. The last extreme event (G5) occurred with the Halloween Storms in 2003.

The cause of the geomagnetic storm risk was a large and complex sunspot cluster in solar region 3664, which is 16 times the diameter of Earth, where more activity is still expected in the middle of the current maximum activity of the 11-year solar cycle.