may not be aware of it, but space weather costs our technology billions
of dollars every year. This amount goes for the replacement of failing
satellites in space, creating countermeasures in our technology
so that future solar storms don't damage our technology, and also
in protecting our astronauts who live and work in space.
web site will guide you through the maze of space weather human
impacts, why they happen, and the costs to our society from their
comings and goings.
live near a star that provides us with light and heat, but from
time to time it also flares up and ejects bursts of gas and radiation
into space. Solar flares can be deadly to astronauts caught unprotected
in space. The gases, once they arrive, cause the beautiful Northern
Lights, but also magnetic storms that disrupt our electrical systems
and satellite technology.
have known about the sun's activity cycle for over 150 years. It
is commonly called the 'sunspot cycle'. Scientists have also come
to describe the sun's storminess in space by using a term 'space
weather'. Space weather is like Earth weather. It has its good,
mild days, and its stormy active days too.
are like lightning storms on Earth. They arrive suddenly, cause
a variety of problems, and then vanish within a few hours.
is like the various breezes that we feel each day, and can transport
mild storms from the sun to Earth. It travels at about 400 km/sec
and its density varies from a few atoms per cubic centimeter to
about 10. Even distant Pluto feels this gentle breeze.
are clouds of plasma ejected from the Sun that sweep into space
at millions of miles per hour. Some are gentle and like a mild rain
storm on Earth. Others are like the most intense hurricanes, tornadoes
and tsunamis and cause all sorts of problems for our satellites.
But they also create the beautiful aurora borealis and aurora australis.
website, created by Dr. Sten Odenwald, will guide you through this
exciting topic, and provides authoritative resources for studying
this subject further.