Ten Solar Storms That Completely Outran Us In 2022

As the sun approaches the peak of its 11-year solar activity cycle in 2025, solar storms are growing stronger and more frequent. As a result, 2022 produced a tonne of intriguing solar storm tales. Here are some of our faves, including unexpected storms, enormous sunspots, vivid aurora explosions, and other strange events.

‘Potentially Disruptive’ Surprise Storm

After an unexpected “possibly disruptive” solar storm hit Earth, scientists were left perplexed. The storm was a G1-class event, which means it was powerful enough to damage some migratory animals’ ability to navigate and to trigger abnormally strong auroras. It also had a modest negative influence on satellite performance. There was no sign of a coronal mass ejection (CME), which is a burst of plasma with an imbedded magnetic field that is belched out from a sun spot and is the traditional source of storms like this.

A Pink Aurora Explosion

After a solar storm slammed into Earth and ripped a hole in the planet’s magnetic field, an explosion of extremely rare pink auroras was seen in the night sky above Norway. The G1 storm caused a small, temporary “crack” in the magnetosphere — an invisible magnetic field that surrounds Earth and is generated by the planet’s fluid metal core — allowing charged solar particles to enter deeper into the planet’s atmosphere than usual.

Normally, storm particles react with oxygen atoms high in the atmosphere, emitting a bright green colour. However, in this unusual storm, the particles collided with nitrogen atoms closer to the ground, producing stunning pink colours.

Huge plasma plume

This hauntingly beautiful image of a massive plume of plasma shooting out of the sun after a CME was captured by an astrophotographer. The fiery filament stretched approximately 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometres). The plasma was first contained in a large loop connected to the sun’s surface, known as a prominence, before breaking off and streaming into space at approximately 100,000 mph (161,000 km/h).

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Radio Outages in the Southern Hemisphere

A surprise solar flare knocked out radio service in parts of Australia and all of New Zealand. The flare was caused by a CME that was pointing away from Earth. However, the flare’s X-rays and ultraviolet radiation ionised atoms in our planet’s upper atmosphere, making it impossible to bounce high-frequency radio waves from them and causing a radio blackout. Solar flares can cause radio blackouts anywhere on the planet that faces the sun.

The Mighty ‘Proton Aurora’

According to new research, an unusual type of aurora tore a 250-mile-wide (400-kilometer) hole in the upper ozone layer during a 2015 solar storm.

These isolated proton auroras occur when solar particles collide with Earth’s magnetosphere and travel down magnetic-field lines. As a result, faint and patchy green auroras appear further away from the poles than normal auroras. These auroras produce nitrogen oxides and hydrogen oxides, which combine with ozone to form ozone.

One of the Most Powerful CMEs Ever Detected

After being hit by one of the largest CMEs ever detected, Venus experienced a period of extreme space weather. The CME, detected by the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter, was the second solar storm to strike Venus in a week, but it was at least an order of magnitude stronger.

The storm’s high-energy particles caused problems with the Solar Orbiter, which persisted after the CME passed. According to mission scientists, Venus experienced a “very fast and powerful interplanetary shock” that caused its heliosphere to fill with particles, causing the spacecraft to experience prolonged interference.

‘STEVE’ Makes An Appearance

Another unexpected solar storm prompted a rare appearance by STEVE, a mysterious sky phenomenon.

A solar storm superheated a long, thin line of hot gas known as STEVE (short for “strong thermal emission velocity enhancement”). It appears as a massive ribbon of purplish light that can last for an hour or more in the sky, followed by a “picket fence” of green light that usually fades away after a few minutes.

Storms Following Storms

After a moderate solar flare blasted out of the sun’s atmosphere, a pair of geomagnetic storms slammed into Earth on consecutive days. The first blast, caused by a G2-class storm, was followed the next day by a smaller G1-class storm. Authorities warned that the storms could cause radio blackouts and disrupt power grids in high latitudes, but neither storm caused any significant disruptions.

Just a few days before the back-to-back storms, another G2 storm grazed Earth. Researchers believe that as the sun approaches the solar maximum, this type of repeated bombardment by small solar outbursts will become more common.

Double-Sized Giant Sunspot

Earlier this year, a huge sunspot about the size of Earth unexpectedly doubled in size within a 24-hour period. The size of the enormous sunspot, known as AR3038, increased to about 19,800 miles (31,900 km). The enormous dark spot, which was close to the sun’s equator, was predicted to be capable of spitting off many powerful M-class flares, which had the potential to trigger significant regional blackouts.

Sun hole that Resembles a Canyon

A huge, extended hole in the sun’s corona, or outer atmosphere, appeared to be a dark scar that ran vertically across the star’s surface. Coronal holes are places in the sun’s upper atmosphere where the plasma is less heated and dense than it is elsewhere. Because of this contrast, the areas seem black. The magnetic-field lines of the sun point outward into space rather than looping back on themselves in these areas.

In the event, Earth was not in the direct line of fire of this outburst, despite experts’ warnings that the hole may belch out solar material at up to 1.8 million mph (2.9 million km/h).