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Solar storm slams Earth at 950 km/s; auroras blaze as far south as the Florida Keys
AR3664's G5-class geomagnetic eruption, the most intense in 21 years, compresses the magnetopause nearly in half and triggers the largest coordinated satellite maneuver on record.
Beginning May 10, 2024, a solar active region designated AR3664 unleashed a cascade of X-class flares and coronal mass ejections that slammed into Earth's magnetic field at speeds up to 950 kilometers per second. The resulting G5-class geomagnetic storm — the most intense since the 2003 Halloween storms and the first of its magnitude since March 1989 — pushed visible auroras as far south as the Florida Keys, Puerto Rico, and the Yucatán Peninsula. Named the Gannon storm after space physicist Jennifer Gannon, it compressed Earth's protective magnetopause nearly in half and forced the largest coordinated satellite maneuver ever recorded…
