The effect was stunning: a dazzling display of auroras reaching as far as southern California. The video shows gorgeous hues blanketing the Earth’s night sky, dancing high above the surface like a diffused, multicolored glow. Auroras, or northern lights, are triggered when these charged particles interact with and ionize the gases in the atmosphere, emitting light in varying colors as a result. As Live Science reports, it was a particularly powerful geomagnetic storm — but not the strongest one on record. A May 2024 storm reached G5, or “extreme,” status, the first to do so since an equally ferocious “Great Halloween solar storm” in 2003.