The Heart of a Solar Storm: NASA Examines Space Weather in New Study

Astronomers have caught a glimpse into the very heart of a solar storm. They've taken a close at a space weather storm that engulfed our planet on Jan 21, 2005 after a coronal mass ejection (CME) burst off of the sun and headed toward Earth.

"There were key features appearing that we generally only see during extreme space weather events, when by other measures the storm was moderate," said Janet Kozyra, one of the researchers, in a news release. "We wanted to look at it holistically, much like terrestrial weather researchers do with extreme weather. We took every single piece of data that we could find on the solar storm and put it together to see what was going on."

The researchers collected observations from ground-based networks and 20 different satellites. In the end, they found that the CME contained a rare piece of dense solar filament material. This filament, along with the fast speed of the CME, led to the large amount of solar material observed during the space weather event. Yet magnetic geometry helped soften the blow of this storm and led to reduced magnetic fields.

"This event, with its unusual combination of space weather effects really demonstrates why it's important to look at the entire system, not just individual elements," said Kozyra. "Only by using all of this data, by watching the event from the beginning to the end, can we begin to understand all the different facets of an extreme storm like this."

The findings reveal a bit more about what happened during this particular storm. This, in turn, adds to a much larger body of knowledge about how different kinds of CMEs can impact Earth. Understanding what factors lead to the strength of the storm can allow scientists to make better predictions in the future. This could be crucial when it comes to preparing for these storms, which can impact satellites and electronics.

The findings are published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, Space Physics.