• An "extreme" G5 geomagnetic storm struck the Earth Surface on 11th of May 2024 and due to which aurora lights was seen at different places including India's Ladakh region. Astronomers of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru (IIA) captured the auroras through all-sky cameras positioned around the Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO) in Hanle, Ladakh.

Background

• The last G5 geomagnetic storm was seen in October 2003 which caused power outages in Sweden and damaged transformers in South Africa.
• Auroras, are usually seen in high-latitude regions (when measured from the equator), namely the North and the South Pole. When witnessed near the North they are called Aurora Borealis, while those in the South are called Aurora Australis.
• The recent series of solar events was started on May 8, when a large cluster of sunspots produced "several moderate to strong solar flares."

About this Event

• The area on the Sun where the flares are occurring is 16 times the diameter of Earth and that Spot was named as “AR3664” and its size is 16 times the diameter of Earth.
• The source of these storms was Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), which are large ejections of magnetic particles and plasma from the Sun’s corona – the outermost part of its atmosphere.
• Travelling at 700km/second, the Earth-bound CMEs reached the closest to the Earth’s atmosphere on May 10 and 11, disturbing the otherwise calm Space weather.
• Solar flares travelling at a speed of 815km/second were recorded when they hit the Earth.

Effects of Solar Storms

• Intense solar storms can be harmful as they can interfere with and threaten the smooth operations of satellites operating in the Low Earth Orbit or LEO (an altitude ranging between 200-1,600km).
• The most common satellites functioning from the LEO are used for multiple purposes, such as navigation, military, intelligence, communications, etc. Thus, Earth’s satellite-based GPS, navigation systems, etc. could be vulnerable to solar storms.

Auroras  

• Auroras are bright and colourful lights, formed due to an active interaction in Space between charged solar winds and the Earth’s magnetosphere. A geomagnetic storm also means aurora borealis, otherwise known as the northern lights.
• The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) uses the G-scale to categorize geomagnetic storms from G1 to G5, with G1 being the weakest and G5 being the strongest.
• Solar winds are ejections of charged particles from the Sun’s atmosphere, mostly composed of protons and electrons.
• The magnetosphere is the region surrounding the Earth where the dominant magnetic field is the Earth’s, rather than the magnetic field of interplanetary Space, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
• It protects the Earth against solar winds and is strongest at the poles.
• However, sometimes solar wind particles flow down the Earth’s magnetic field. Auroras are produced when these particles collide with atoms and molecules in the Earth’s upper atmosphere.