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Space Weather Secrets

Posted by michael on from the carry-an-umbrella dept.

keitsi69 writes "Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) has a story about space weather: "Intense solar particle emissions hit the earth's ionosphere bringing large electrical fields with them. They can damage or knock-out satellites, corrode oil pipelines and cause electricity transformers to stop working. Hence, the necessity of space weather forecasting, Professor Pulkkinen notes." Pretty interesting. Soon we all will be watching space forecasts..."

3 of 18 comments (clear)

  1. Space Weather by Smidge204 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Some people are way ahead of you. ;)

    Ironically, I think their forcasts are more accurate than our local guys.
    =Smidge=

    1. Re:Space Weather by mmontour · · Score: 3, Informative

      Also here and here.

  2. Re:Predictability by hubie · · Score: 5, Informative
    N.B. Space weather is much less predictable than terrestrial weather, and that is not well at all. Sometimes flare events cause space weather events at earth, sometimes not. Space weather events increase with solar activity, but some of the most intense events happen around the minimum in the solar activity cycle. There are very few monitoring stations (on the ground or in space) that can make the necessary measurements. The physics behind these events is not well known, and it isn't well known what kind of monitoring equipment is best (visible imagers, ultraviolet imagers, magnetographs, etc.).

    Aurorae aren't the only things "regular" folk see. Six million people in Quebec lost power because of a solar storm. Commercial and military institutions lose satellites fairly frequently due to solar storms. Most of the people in the US lost pager service for this reason.

    These issues are a high priority for NASA, NOAA, and the Air Force. Lots of good data have come from SOHO, WIND, and ACE, but these are either nearing the end of their lives or they are done. STEREO should provide the next round of very good data. Just about any spacecraft that measures the solar wind contributes to understanding space weather, and some missions are designed with that as their primary mission. There are also ground-based programs that make very valuable observations. A good page with some space missions can be found here.