Aditya-L1 and the May 2024 Solar Storm
India's first solar observatory, Aditya-L1, in collaboration with six U.S. satellites, made significant breakthroughs in understanding the unusual behavior of the May 2024 solar storm, also known as Gannon’s storm.
Solar Storm Characteristics
- The May 2024 solar storm was the strongest in over two decades, significantly disrupting Earth's environment.
- Solar storms are caused by Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), which are massive bubbles of hot gas and magnetic energy expelled from the Sun.
- These CMEs can impact Earth’s magnetic shield, affecting satellites, communications, GPS, and power grids.
Unusual Behavior of Gannon’s Storm
- ISRO reported that the Sun’s magnetic fields, typically twisted ropes within a solar storm, were breaking and rejoining unusually within the storm.
- Two CMEs collided, causing a process termed magnetic reconnection, where the magnetic field lines snapped and rejoined.
- This magnetic reconnection intensified the storm's impact, as satellites detected increased energy in particles.
Collaborative Observations
- Aditya-L1 worked with six U.S. satellites: NASA’s Wind, ACE, THEMIS-C, STEREO-A, MMS, and the NASA-NOAA joint mission DSCOVR.
- The collaboration allowed the first multi-vantage study of an extreme solar storm.
- Precise magnetic field measurements by Aditya-L1 helped map the reconnection region, found to be about 1.3 million km across, nearly 100 times the size of Earth.
Impact of the Discovery
This breakthrough is expected to significantly enhance the understanding of solar storm evolution from the Sun to Earth.
