GOLD Observations of the Merging of the Southern Crest of the Equatorial Ionization Anomaly and Aurora During the 10 and 11 May 2024 Mother's Day Super Geomagnetic Storm
Abstract Using NASA's Global‐scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) imager, we report nightside ionospheric changes during the G5 super geomagnetic storm of 10 and 11 May 2024. Specifically, the nightside southern crest of the Equatorial Ionization Anomaly (EIA) was observed to merge with the aurora near the southern tip of South America. During the storm, the EIA southern crest was seen moving poleward as fast as 450 m/s. Furthermore, the aurora extended to mid‐latitudes reaching the southern tips of Africa and South America. The poleward shift of the equatorial ionospheric structure and equatorward motion of the aurora means there was no mid‐latitude ionosphere in this region. These observations offer unique insights into the ionospheric response to extreme geomagnetic disturbances, highlighting the complex interplay between solar activity and Earth's upper atmosphere.
Authors
- W. E. McClintock (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8142-5398)
- R. Eastes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3679-9793)
- C. R. Martinis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1085-7871)
- S. England (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5336-0040)
- R. Michell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9342-8564)
- D. K. Karan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9903-8230)
- R. E. Daniell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9271-7986)
- Wenbin Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6287-4542)
Institutions
- NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (US)
- Boston University (US)
- NSF NCAR High Altitude Observatory (US)
- Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- Institute for Magnetospheric Physics (US)
- Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (US)
- Virginia Tech (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Published
- 2024-08-09
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1029/2024gl110632
- Citations
- 64
- Primary Topic
- Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 21.22
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Nuclear Safety and Security Commission
- South African National Space Agency
- Goddard Space Flight Center