Watch a storm happen
Theory is done; now watch the real thing. In May 2024, giant sunspot region AR 3664 fired a barrage of CMEs at Earth and produced the first G5 (extreme) geomagnetic storm in two decades — aurora reached the tropics. The replay below runs on NASA's measured data for those days.
▶ Replay the Gannon superstorm ▶ The same storm in 3D
- Watch the timeline at the bottom: each triangle is a launch, each dot an arrival. Notice the CMEs leaving in groups — later ones plowing into earlier ones. Stacked arrivals are what made this storm extreme.
- Scrub time by dragging the timeline: run the impacts in slow motion, then let it play.
- In the 3D view, notice each cone's tilt — a CME can look Earth-aimed from above yet fire over the poles. Latitude matters.
Then two case studies with a question each — scrub the replay and answer before reading the story:
▶ Québec 1989 — when the storm hit, the provincial grid collapsed in 92 seconds. Question: scrub back from impact — how much warning did operators have between the CME's launch and its arrival? (then read the story)
▶ Starlink 2022 — a minor G1 storm destroyed 38 of 49 freshly launched satellites. Question: if a G1 can do that, what's the actual lesson — storm strength, or timing? (the story)
Check yourself — Module 2
Check yourself above, then continue — answers aren't stored anywhere.