How NASA tracked the most intense solar storm in decades

May 2024 has already proven to be a particularly stormy month for our sun. During the first full week of May, a barrage of large solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) launched clouds of charged particles and magnetic fields toward Earth, creating the strongest solar storm to reach Earth in two decades—and possibly one of the strongest displays of auroras on record in the past 500 years.