The Sun Unleashed: How NASA Tracked the Most Intense Solar Storm in Decades

May 2024 witnessed one of the most significant solar storms in decades, featuring a barrage of solar flares and coronal mass ejections that caused historic aurora displays and tested the limits of scientific understanding of solar weather.

May 2024 has already proven to be a particularly stormy month for our Sun. During the first full week of May, a barrage of large solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) launched clouds of charged particles and magnetic fields toward Earth, creating the strongest solar storm to reach Earth in two decades — and possibly one of the strongest displays of auroras on record in the past 500 years.