No ceiling on solar storms: NASA study suggests extreme space weather could be stronger than we thought

A NASA-led study published in Nature finds a longstanding measurement bias from L1 solar-wind data has caused scientists to underestimate how powerful extreme solar storms can be. By comparing million-scale wind-energy measurements with closer, near-Earth observations from THEMIS, MMS, and DoubleStar, the researchers found no statistical evidence of an upper limit to energy transfer from the solar wind to Earth’s polar ionosphere. If there is indeed no ceiling, the worst-case space weather scenarios used in planning could be too mild, with potential disruptions to satellites, GPS, and communications, prompting a revision of extreme-storm modeling and preparedness.