Last Updated: 02/03/2025

Time Period Page for 2024-05-TP-02

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Time Period ID: 2024-05-TP-02

Storm Name: May 2024 Storm

Alternative names: Mother’s day Solar Storm, Gannon Storm

Start Time: Start Time of Solar Activity: 2024-05-08T04:20Z (M3.5 flare and the following X1.0 flare starting at 2024-05-08T04:37Z

End Time: End Time: 2024-05-14T00:00:00Z (When Kp index came back to normal values of 2-3)

Solar Cycle: 25

Short description: Multiple flares and CMEs starting on 2024-05-08, mild solar energetic particle, radiation, Kp Geomagnetic storm index reached levels of 7-9 (strong-extreme) between 2024-05-10 and 2024-05-13

Narrative: The solar storms of May 2024 (also known as 2024 Mother's Day solar storm or Gannon storm in memory of Jennifer Gannon, a space weather physicist) were a series of powerful solar flares that started on 2024-05-08, associated with sunspot group of an active region presented on the Sun's western limb. The flares were accompanied by Earth-directed Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), among them two powerful ones full-halo CMEs on May 9 and 10. The arrival of CMEs to Earth caused a strong geomagnetic storm that occurred between 10–13 May 2024. This geomagnetic storm was the most powerful to affect Earth since 1989. It produced aurorae at far more equatorial latitudes than usual in both hemispheres. These events were also accompanied by the mild solar energetic particle radiation.

Narrative on Impact: The storm affected ground-based broadcasting and two-way radio communications, especially on the High Frequency (HF) band, because it increased the density of the certain layer of the ionosphere, that resulted into absorption of the radio waves and interfering with propagation. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that there were power grid irregularities and degradation in GPS and HF radio communications, but both the Federal Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Energy reported no significant impacts to the population. Agricultural users of some GPS equipment reported significantly degraded positional accuracy during the geomagnetic storm. And certain agricultural workers were forced to suspend planting activities.

University of Victoria researchers discovered that the geomagnetic storm triggered compasses in sub-sea observatories deployed as deep as 2.7 km under the ocean’s surface. Some drone users flying during the storm experienced unusual behavior, disruption of GPS signals, and in some cases a sudden loss of control which resulted in a crash.  At 00:19 UTC on 13 May, the GOES-16 satellite, stopped transmitting all data. The transmission of data resumed nearly 2 hours later at 02:00 UTC. There was a second loss of data transmission shortly after, lasting 11 minutes from 03:19 UTC to 03:30 UTC. Starlink's fleet of low-orbiting satellites experienced degraded service. The storm caused electrical problems for European Space Agency's Gaia satellite.

What is special about this storm: [bullets understandable to general public with a link to more science bullets] TBD

Science questions: [A link to extendable list of science questions with ability of moderated submission of additional questions from the community] TBD

Flare layouts

Active regions

AR 13664

CME layouts

Impact on Geospace ISWA layouts

DONKI listings:

List of flares

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List of GST

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Realtime CCMC/M2M Runs Output on DONKI (WSA/ENLIL)

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