CHALLENGE
Show Us What the May 2024 Geomagnetic Storms Looked Like
The Sun is highly variable and cycles through periods when its magnetic activity is very high, and times when there is very low or almost no magnetic activity. This year the Sun was very active! In May 2024 multiple large solar flares created space weather that affected Earth in a variety of ways. Your challenge is to use NASA data to create a visual representation (e.g., a movie, video of a dance, etc.) that helps the public better understand the May 2024 solar storms and their impacts.
The Sun’s activity—including solar flares and coronal mass ejections and the particles that they accelerate—generates space weather. While space weather can create beautiful auroras, it can also interfere with satellites and radio communications. During the most active part of the solar cycle, it is important that people understand what space weather is and how it affects their daily lives. Data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and Parker Solar Probe, the joint NASA-European Space Agency Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), and other missions in the Heliophysics System Observatory can increase our knowledge about space weather and its effects.
Your challenge is to use NASA data from satellites or ground instruments to create a visual representation that tells the story of the May 2024 solar storms and help members of the general public better understand the impacts of those events. Your project can educate people about space weather and how it affects Earth, the Moon, Mars, and other locations in our solar system. Think about how your target audience will relate to your visual story. Do you want to reach farmers, dancers, ranchers, airline pilots, students, or another group? You can tell this story from any viewpoint: that of the Sun, a coronal mass ejection, the Moon, Mars, or humans on Earth! For example, although we are used to seeing visuals of the Sun that are produced from NASA data, the particles that are released during space weather events can be detected by NASA satellites as well. These particles are part of the space weather story. Your story could consider the viewpoint of these particles, and show us what these particles “saw” as they flew through the inner solar system. Consider the important information that your audience needs to know about space weather to understand it. For example, how can you help them learn what causes space weather and how we get information about space weather? Be creative! Your project can take any visual form; you can incorporate images derived from real NASA data, create a video, develop a musical, or generate something else that conveys the story of the May 2024 solar events and the impacts of the space weather they created.
You may (but are not required to) consider the following: