Magnetic storms, more precisely geomagnetic storms, are global disturbances in Earth’s magnetosphere driven by enhanced solar wind conditions and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) structures, particularly southward IMF associated with coronal mass ejections or high-speed solar wind streams. They are characterized by rapid energy transfer from the solar wind into the magnetosphere–ionosphere system via magnetic reconnection, causing enhanced ring current, auroral electrojets, and large deviations in geomagnetic indices such as Dst and Kp. These storms modify radiation belt populations, ionospheric currents, and thermospheric density, impacting space weather–relevant processes, including satellite drag, communications, and geomagnetically induced currents.
On a special night, if you are lucky, you might catch a faint red glow quietly lighting up Japan's sky, stretching low along the horizon and easy to miss if you are not looking carefully. Subtle and diffuse, it probably appears ...
Astronomy
May 20, 2026
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A solar storm like the one that caused a nine-hour blackout across Quebec in 1989 could have even more dramatic effects if it struck the eastern United States today. Now, scientists have developed new tools to detect these ...
Earth Sciences
May 4, 2026
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Research led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has integrated three types of machine learning models to generate solar magnetic patches with physical properties and used those as a query to find matching patches in real ...
Astronomy
Apr 14, 2026
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The sun, our nearest star, never stops breathing. Every second of every day, it exhales a vast stream of charged particles that sweeps outward through the solar system at hundreds of kilometers per second. We call it the ...
Astronomy
Mar 30, 2026
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NASA's Van Allen Probe A is expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere almost 14 years after launch. From 2012 to 2019, the spacecraft and its twin, Van Allen Probe B, flew through the Van Allen belts, rings of charged particles ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 10, 2026
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A University of Southampton study has revealed an intriguing new clue in the mystery of what triggers periods of very intense, brightly colored activity during displays of both the southern and northern lights.
Planetary Sciences
Nov 28, 2025
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The sun is frequently ejecting huge masses of plasma, called coronal mass ejections (CMEs), into space. They often occur together with sudden brightenings called flares, and sometimes extend far enough to disturb Earth's ...
Astronomy
Oct 27, 2025
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Colorful auroras appeared around Japan's Honshu and Hokkaido islands on May 11, 2024, sparked by an intense magnetic storm. Usually, auroras observed at low latitudes appear red due to the emission of oxygen atoms. But on ...
Planetary Sciences
Dec 5, 2024
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This Thanksgiving, solar storms may produce faint auroras across the northern rim of the United States.
Space Exploration
Nov 27, 2024
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