Astronomers Discover New Radiation Belts Caused by Solar Storm Last Year

A solar storm last year created temporary radiation belts around our planet, which could still be here.

An image of an X5.8 solar flare from May 10th, 2024 taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The solar flare itself can be seen towards the bottom right of the image, facing our planet directly compared to the other visible solar activity. Credit: NASA SDO.

Originally published at RebeccaJeanT.com

Research published yesterday in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics finds that a solar storm in May 2024 created new temporary radiation belts around Earth. While not the first solar storm to create brief radiation belts around our planet, it was powerful enough to cause aurora across much of the northern hemisphere and created uniquely long-lasting radiation belts.

One of the radiation belts from the May 2024 solar storm might still be hanging around today.

Several notable solar storms took place last year during a period of high solar activity, but the storm witnessed in May was the largest seen in decades. The storm resulted in a beautiful light display across much of the United States and many other countries in the Northern Hemisphere. Astronomers and heliophysicists also noted an overall increase in solar activity. It was announced later in the year that we had entered solar maximum, a period where the Sun is the most active in a given solar cycle.

Earth’s radiation defenses