Remember the northern lights that reached Florida? The solar storm created radiation belts around Earth
The event occurred due to two large sunspot clusters on the Sun. The giant star is believed to have reached solar maximum in October during what is known as Solar Cycle 25. The current cycle began around 2019 and is expected to last until around 2030 but will generally have decreasing amounts of activity.
Millions around the world treated to intense Northern Lights displays
People around the world were given the opportunity to witness a dazzling display of the Northern Lights after the Earth was impacted by a historic geomagnetic storm starting Friday.
A discovery made by a NASA CubeSat has revealed that the historic solar storm of 2024, which caused the aurora borealis to be visible as far south as Florida and the northern Caribbean, also produced temporary radiation belts around Earth.
NASA's CIRBE satellite detected both electrons and protons in the belts, which lasted several months, with some particles potentially still in orbit nearly a year later.
The space agency reported that these new belts formed between the Earth's permanent radiation layers, known as the Van Allen Belts.
Van Allen Belts diagram
(NASA)
Named after scientist James Van Allen, who discovered them in the 1950s, the Van Allen Belts are composed of charged particles trapped by Earth's magnetic field.
The inner belt lies between approximately 600 miles and 8,000 miles above Earth's surface, while the outer belt extends from about 8,000 miles to more than 30,000 miles above the planet.
The two newly discovered belts are thought to have formed between these permanent belts, with at least one exhibiting a composition never seen before.
"When we compared the data from before and after the storm, I said, ‘Wow, this is something really new,’" Xinlin Li, an engineering sciences professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, said in a statement. "This is really stunning."
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The May 2024 solar storm created two additional radiation belts around Earth.
(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Kristen Perrin / NASA)
NASA said the particles that make up the belts can damage spacecraft and satellites that pass through them on their way to their final orbit.
Aside from space travel, the belts are not thought to have any direct impact on Earth’s surface. However, they are known to help protect the planet from incoming radiation caused by events such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections.
Space experts contend that understanding the dynamics of these temporary belts is crucial for ensuring the safety of future space missions.
"Our current technology is ever more susceptible to these accelerated particles because even a single hit from a particle can upset our ever smaller instruments and electronics," David Sibeck, a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, previously stated in regard to the permanent belts. "As technology advances, it’s actually becoming even more pressing to understand and predict our space environment."
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Coincidentally, the same satellite that measured the effects of the solar storm also became a victim of it, as increased atmospheric drag caused it to lose its orbit in the months that followed.
"We are very proud that our very small CubeSat made such a discovery," Li said.
The Sun is believed to have reached solar maximum in October during what is known as the peak of Solar Cycle 25.
The cycle began in 2019 and is expected to last until around 2030 but will generally have decreasing amounts of activity as the cycle wanes.
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