Aditya-L1 Sheds Light on May 2024's Unprecedented Solar Storm

India's Aditya-L1 observatory played a crucial role in deciphering the unusual behavior of the May 2024 solar storm, the strongest in two decades. The collaboration with US satellites helped map magnetic reconnection, advancing understanding of solar storms and highlighting India's prominence in space science.

India's pioneering solar observatory, Aditya-L1, has been instrumental in deciphering the unanticipated behavior of the most powerful solar storm to hit Earth in over two decades, as revealed by ISRO on Tuesday.

The observatory teamed up with six U.S. satellites, including NASA's Wind, providing precise magnetic field data that allowed scientists to examine the storm from multiple spatial vantage points.

This storm, now termed 'Gannon's storm,' involved coronal mass ejections (CMEs), with magnetic reconnection inside a CME observed for the first time, substantially elevating the storm's impact and empowering researchers' understanding of solar phenomena.

(With inputs from agencies.)