Sun storm

SPACE — The most powerful solar storm in nearly six years, hit Earth on Friday, March 24, 2024. But strangely, space forecasters weren’t watching when they struck.

The geomagnetic storm peaked as a severe G4 on the class 5 scale used by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The scale is for assessing the severity of space weather events. The unexpected ferocity of the storm not only made auroras visible as far south as New Mexico in the US, but also forced the space flight company Rocket Lab to delay launch by 90 minutes.

Geomagnetic storms are disturbances in the Earth’s magnetic field caused by solar material from coronal mass ejections (CME). The last name is a large ejection of plasma and magnetic field from the sun’s atmosphere. It turns out that this geomagnetic storm was triggered by a ‘stealth’ CME which is rather difficult to detect.

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The US National Space Weather Service NOAA initially announced a geomagnetic storm watch on March 22, 2023, which would go into effect March 23-25. The possibility of storm conditions is only at the moderate G2 level which is expected to occur this March 24. As it turned out, what hit was a powerful G4 storm.

Only at 00.41 EDT or 11.41 WIB, Friday March 24, NOAA raised the warning to a severe G4 hurricane. US space weather forecaster Tamitha Skov explains why the space weather community misunderstood the latest storm.

“These nearly invisible storms launch much more slowly than erupting CMEs, and are very difficult to observe (as they) leave the sun’s surface, without special training,” he told Space.com.

Stealth CME also, he said, can be disguised by other, more dense structures that come from the sun. That’s what makes it difficult to observe without prior experience/practice.

“This is why they are the cause of the ‘geomagnetic storm problem’ like the G4 grade hurricanes we are experiencing right now,” said Skov.

Geomagnetic Storm Danger Level

NOAA ranks geomagnetic storms on a scale ranging from G1, which can cause increased aurora activity around the poles and minor fluctuations in power supplies, to G5, which includes extreme cases such as the Carrington Event. It was a colossal solar storm that occurred in September 1859, which disrupted telegraph services around the world and triggered auroras so bright and powerful that they were visible as far south as the Bahamas.

Strong geomagnetic storms can make spaceflight difficult by increasing the density of gases in Earth’s upper atmosphere. That increases drag on satellites and other spacecraft. In February 2022, SpaceX lost up to 40 new Starlink satellites when it failed to reach orbit during launch amid a minor geomagnetic storm.

Rocket Lab delayed its launch Friday morning by about 90 minutes while assessing developing conditions. However, Rocket Lab finally successfully launched at 5.14 EDT or 16.14 WIB this morning.

Another side effect of powerful geomagnetic storms is the incredible aurora displays they trigger. When energetic particles from the sun hit Earth’s atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million mph (72 million kph), Earth’s magnetic field funnels the particles towards the poles.

Subsequent supercharging is the molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere triggering the iridescent glasses, which usually remain confined to areas at high latitudes. This time, sky watchers around the world were treated to a dazzling display of auroras that reached as far south as Colorado and New Mexico due to the G4 storm.

You can see more extreme space weather events like geomagnetic storms when the sun reaches its peak in its 11-year cycle. This event is expected to occur in 2025. Just wait!