GG News Bureau
Bengaluru, 15th May. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced on Tuesday that Earth experienced a potent solar storm in early May 2024, triggered by the highly active region AR13664 on the Sun. This region unleashed a series of X-class flares and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) directed at our planet.
ISRO reported that the resulting geomagnetic storm was the most intense since 2003, leading to disruptions in communication and GPS systems. This event marked the most significant geomagnetic disturbance since the historic Carrington event of 1859, according to ISRO.
Multiple X-class flares and CMEs have bombarded Earth over the past few days, with severe effects observed over high latitudes, resulting in reported diversions of trans-polar flights. ISRO warned of further solar activity in the coming days.
While the impact on the Indian sector was relatively subdued due to the early timing of the main event on May 11, when the ionosphere had not fully developed, widespread outages were not reported in India. However, the ionosphere over the Pacific and American sectors experienced significant turbulence.
The ionosphere, a crucial part of Earth’s upper atmosphere, plays a vital role in reflecting and modifying radio waves used for communication and navigation. ISRO noted that both its observation platforms, Aditya-L1 and Chandrayaan-2, have recorded data on the event, with the ASPEX payload on Aditya-L1 detecting high-speed solar wind and energetic ion flux.
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