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Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Huge solar storm in May 2024 spawned 2 new radiation belts around Earth
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The great solar storm of May 2024, which sparked beautiful auroral displays over much of the world, also created two new radiation belts that were observed with a satellite that came back from the dead. "This is really stunning," Xinlin Li, a professor at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said in a statement. "When we compared the data from before and after the storm, I said, 'Wow, this is something really new'." May 2024 saw a series of powerful storms erupt from our sun, spewing clouds of charged particles into space and culminating in a dramatic display of aurora borealis (northern lights) and aurora australis (southern lights) — the result of the most powerful geomagnetic storm experienced on Earth since March 1989. And NASA's Colorado Inner Radiation Belt Experiment (CIRBE) satellite had slept through the whole thing. Designed to study Earth's Van Allen radiation belts, CIRBE launched in April 2023 but fell silent in mid-April 2024 as the result of an onboard technical issue. It reawakened in June, and when it did come around, something had changed: Two brand-new radiation belts had appeared! The Van Allen radiation belts contain charged particles held in place by our Earth's magnetic field. There are two permanent belts, but the appearance of a new temporary radiation belt between the two permanent belts following a solar storm is not unusual — such short-lived belts were first detected in 2013. What CIRBE found to be unusual about these two new belts following the May 2024 event was their composition and lifetime. Usually, temporary belts that form following a solar storm are composed of high-energy electrons. One of the new belts found by CIRBE fit this pattern. However the other belt contained a substantial abundance of high-energy protons, too (protons are found also in the permanent radiation belts). Their presence in the new belt is believed to be the product of the intensity of May 2024's solar storms. Temporary radiation belts also usually last for at most four weeks before dissipating, but the new belts found by CIRBE had much longer lifespans: The electron-dominated belt survived for three months after the solar storm, while the proton-dominated belt is believed to still be wrapped around Earth even now. "These are really high-energy electrons and protons that have found their way into Earth's inner magnetic environment," said David Sibeck of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. "Some might stay in this place for a very long time." While solar storms can create new radiation belts like this, solar storms can also destroy them. A modestly powerful storm in June 2024 reduced the electron-dominated belt, and another storm in August 2024 almost wiped it out completely. The proton-rich belt remains because it is located in a more stable region where its protons are less vulnerable to being bumped out of orbit. The existence of these temporary belts containing high-energy charged particles — the energy range of the electrons was 1.3 to 5 megaelectronvolts (MeV), and for the protons it was even greater at 6.8 to 20 MeV — could have repercussions for launching spacecraft through the Van Allen belts to reach geostationary orbit (which lies at an altitude of 22,236 miles, or 35,785 kilometers) or beyond. The charged particles contained within the belts can damage electrical components in satellites and spacecraft, while providing an extra radiation hazard for astronauts should they ever head back to the moon or venture on to Mars. To ensure the greatest safety at launch, some future missions, particularly those carrying a crew, may need to modify their launch plans or carry extra shielding following solar storms. However, previous measurements have revealed discrepancies between solar age observations and theoretical models — and now, a team led by Bétrisey has shown that it's probably the sun's own magnetic activity that is at fault. This is surprising, because the consensus had previously been that magnetic activity should have no impact at all. Bétrisey's team looked at 26.5 years' worth of data from two sun-observing programs. One was BISON, the Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network, which is a collection of ground-based solar observatories overseen by scientists at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. The other was GOLF, the Global Oscillations at Low Frequency instrument on the joint NASA–ESA SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) mission that was launched in 1995. Our sun undergoes an 11-year cycle of magnetic activity, rising from solar minimum when there are hardly any sunspots visible, to solar maximum when there are sunspots, prominences, coronal mass ejections and flares aplenty. The BISON and GOLF data both showed a 6.5% difference when measuring the sun's age via helioseismology at solar minimum compared to at solar maximum. Furthermore, of the two solar cycles encompassed by the 26.5 years' worth of observations, both BISON and GOLF indicated that the cycle with stronger magnetic activity had a greater impact upon the discrepancy in the age measurement. Because, in the grand scheme of things, the sun is not a very active star, the results from BISON and GOLF suggest that "the impact of magnetic activity could be very significant for more active stars such as those that PLATO will detect," said Bétrisey. Related Stories: — May solar superstorm caused largest 'mass migration' of satellites in history — Solar storm frenzy of May 2024 was strong enough to affect the deep sea — Astrophotographer gets close-up look at monster sunspot that led to May's global auroras As for CIRBE, fate was nothing but ironic. While the effects of the May 2024 solar storm gave the cubesat one last shot at glory, it also spelled its doom. The storm injected a substantial amount of energy into Earth's upper atmosphere, inflating the thermosphere and increasing the atmospheric drag on the satellite. This slowed its orbit, causing it to drop down to increasingly lower altitudes. Eventually, it de-orbited and burned up in October. The discovery of the two new radiation belts was published on Feb. 6 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Mysterious Radiation Belts Detected Around Earth After Epic Solar Storm
In May 2024, an epic solar storm rattled Earth so powerfully that its effects were felt even at the bottom of the ocean. In the wake of a torrent of flare activity on the Sun, our planet was buffeted by a powerful blast of solar particles that shook our magnetic field, and bathed our skies with a panoply of shimmering colors as auroras reached far lower latitudes than usual. But its effects were way more far-reaching, as scientists now reveal. In the months following the storm, Earth was girded by two new, temporary radiation belts of high-energy particles, trapped by the planet's magnetic field. While we've seen this phenomenon before – following powerful geomagnetic storms – the solar storm of May 2024 delivered something we had never detected: energetic protons in one of the new belts. "When we compared the data from before and after the storm, I said, 'Wow, this is something really new'," says physicist Xinlin Li of the University of Colorado Boulder. "This is really stunning." Radiation belts are a normal part of the architecture of a planet with a global magnetic field. Stars are constantly leaking particles, borne by a stellar wind; these stream out and, where they encounter planetary magnetic fields, become entrapped, forming vast belts in toroidal formation around the planet in the center. Earth has two permanent radiation belts known as the Van Allen belts, an inner belt closer to the planet, and an outer belt encircling both. This is a good thing; it's sort of like a planetary defense system that protects our planet from direct bombardment by solar particles, and allows us to live here relatively unscathed. Since these belts are maintained and replenished by solar particles, it's unsurprising that an increase in solar particle output, as generated by the flares and coronal mass ejections of a solar storm, would augment what's already there. Even so, when the scientists investigated the effects of the solar storm of May 2024 based on data collected by the NASA's Colorado Inner Radiation Belt Experiment CubeSat, what they saw surprised them. There, sandwiched between the two Van Allen radiation belts, they found two new belts – one predominantly comprising electrons, as we've seen previously, and the other containing energetic protons, which has never been seen before. "These are really high-energy electrons and protons that have found their way into Earth's inner magnetic environment," says astronomer David Sibeck of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, who was not involved with the research. "Some might stay in this place for a very long time." In fact, the belts remained intact for much longer than previous temporary radiation belts generated by solar storms: three months, compared to the weeks we'd normally expect. Subsequent solar storms in June and August of 2024 knocked most of the particles out of orbit, significantly diminishing the density of the belts. A small amount, however, still remains up there, hanging out with Earth. What's more, the proton belt may remain intact for over a year. Ongoing measurements will help scientists measure its longevity and decay rate. This is important information to have: particles in Earth orbit can pose a hazard to satellites hanging out up there, so knowing the particle density and the effects solar storms can have thereon can help engineers design mitigation strategies to protect our technology. At the moment, though, the hazard posed by the new radiation belts is unquantified. Future studies will be needed to determine the risks these, and future belts, might pose. The research has been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics. The Pandemic Did Not Affect The Moon After All, Scientists Say Scientists Simulated Bennu Crashing to Earth in September 2182. It's Not Pretty. At 1.3 Billion Light-Years Wide, Quipu Is Officially The Biggest Thing in The Universe
