Space weather as a research area investigates the variable conditions in space driven primarily by solar activity and their impact on the heliosphere, near-Earth environment, and technological systems. It encompasses the study of the solar magnetic field, flares, coronal mass ejections, high-speed solar wind streams, and energetic particles, and how these phenomena interact with planetary magnetospheres, ionospheres, and upper atmospheres. Research integrates observations, theory, and physics-based modeling to understand and predict geomagnetic storms, radiation belt dynamics, ionospheric disturbances, and associated hazards to satellites, communication and navigation systems, power grids, and human spaceflight.
Solar storms that fling magnetism across the solar system can knock out satellites, power grids, communication and navigation systems, and endanger astronauts in space. Scientists can observe these phenomena, called coronal ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 7, 2025
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Viewed from space, Earth at night tells endless stories. Using satellite data, we can track population growth, natural disaster damage, cultural celebrations, and even space weather.
Space Exploration
Aug 5, 2025
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Just a short distance inland from the waves crashing against California's shore, NASA's Relativistic Electron Atmospheric Loss (REAL) CubeSat mission launched into the sky, taking off at 2:13 p.m. ET on July 23 from Vandenberg ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 25, 2025
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Space weather probe Vigil will be the world's first space weather mission to be permanently positioned at Lagrange point 5, a unique vantage point that allows us to see solar activity days before it reaches Earth. ESA's Vigil ...
Space Exploration
Jul 17, 2025
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On its record-breaking pass by the sun late last year, NASA's Parker Solar Probe captured stunning new images from within the sun's atmosphere. These newly released images—taken closer to the sun than we've ever been before—are ...
Astronomy
Jul 14, 2025
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The burgeoning space industry and the technologies society increasingly relies on—electric grids, aviation and telecommunications—are all vulnerable to the same threat: space weather.
Space Exploration
Jul 14, 2025
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A new U.K.-led satellite mission concept aims to strengthen the country's position in space weather observation and forecasting by deploying a suite of homegrown scientific instruments on a low-cost spacecraft in low-Earth ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 8, 2025
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An unexpectedly strong solar storm rocked our planet on April 23, 2023, sparking auroras as far south as southern Texas in the U.S. and taking the world by surprise.
Planetary Sciences
Jul 1, 2025
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69
The impacts of space weather such as extreme solar winds and magnetic waves are not limited to outer space. Bursts of plasma emanating from the sun, for instance, can temporarily intensify electric and magnetic fields on ...
Planetary Sciences
Jun 23, 2025
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33
NASA is launching rockets from a remote Pacific island to study mysterious, high-altitude cloud-like structures that can disrupt critical communication systems. The mission, called Sporadic-E ElectroDynamics, or SEED, opens ...
Planetary Sciences
Jun 12, 2025
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