Ground Effects of the 2024 Mother's Day Superstorm: A Multi-source Observational Analysis

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the ground effects of the 2024 Mother's Day superstorm, highlighting how intense space weather disturbances can induce strong geoelectric fields and currents, impacting power grids especially in New Zealand.

Contribution

It provides a multi-source observational analysis of the storm's ground-level impacts, emphasizing the generation of geoelectric fields and geomagnetically induced currents.

Findings

Strong geoelectric fields observed during the storm

Pronounced geomagnetically induced currents detected

Significant impacts on New Zealand power grids

Abstract

This report presents a brief review of the 2024 Mother's Day superstorm and its impacts on the near-Earth space environment and the ground-level effects, with emphasis on the latter. Drawing upon observations from multiple sources. we qualitatively illustrate how intense space weather disturbances can generate strong geoelectric fields and drive pronounced geomagnetically induced currents, as reported at numerous locations, particularly within the New Zealand power grids.