Largest Aurora Appears, Breaking 500 Year Record

JAKARTA – A natural phenomenon in the form of a glow in the Earth’s ionosphere, aka the largest aurora, has broken the record in the last 500 years.

This achievement is based on NASA observations reported by Greek Reporter, Monday (27/5/2024). The resulting colors may be visible as far as the equator due to the spread of geomagnetic storms on Earth. The storm is also said to be the strongest in more than 20 years.

The geomagnetic storm that occurred between May 10 and May 12 2024 was identified as occurring after five solar storms hit in succession. This solar storm, called a coronal mass ejection (CME) was launched by a solar flare from a large sunspot known as AR3664.

This sunspot is 15 times wider than Earth making it the largest in a decade. Some of these solar flares are classified as “X-class,” meaning the most powerful type of explosion on the sun, as Live Science reported.

The ensuing geomagnetic storm was mostly classified as G4 or the second highest level of geomagnetic storm. However, it briefly reached the G5 level or extreme equal to the Carrington event in 1859.

When it happened Sun storm the strongest ever recorded, creating auroras as far south as Cuba and Hawaii. This event is the first time since the strong Halloween storm in 2003 that Earth has experienced such extreme conditions.

However, these powerful storms did not cause any major problems on Earth other than some temporary disruption to satellites and communications. However, it does provide observers with stunningly colorful auroras across much of the sky.

As the magnetosphere weakens, solar radiation floods the upper atmosphere, creating gas molecules and creating auroras. NASA described it as one of the most powerful aurora displays ever recorded in the last 500 years.