Space weather refers to the time-varying conditions in near-Earth space and throughout the heliosphere driven primarily by solar activity, including the solar wind, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), solar flares, and variations in the interplanetary magnetic field. As a physical phenomenon, it encompasses the coupling of solar outputs with Earth’s magnetosphere, ionosphere, and thermosphere, producing geomagnetic storms, substorms, ionospheric disturbances, and energetic particle events. These processes are governed by magnetohydrodynamic and plasma-physical interactions, including magnetic reconnection, wave–particle interactions, and particle acceleration, and are quantitatively characterized using indices such as Kp, Dst, AE, and measures of solar wind and IMF parameters.
The magnetosphere, formed by Earth's magnetic field, acts as a protective shield that deflects solar wind—the flow of charged particles constantly streaming from the sun toward our planet. This magnetic barrier protects our ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 22, 2025
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NASA's Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) mission, a collaborative effort led by the University of Iowa (UI) with substantial contributions from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 21, 2025
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Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientists conducted lab experiments to address a mystery about the origins of frozen hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) on Jupiter's icy moon Europa. Their results, published in the July 2025 issue ...
Astrobiology
Jul 21, 2025
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Our first meeting was a bit awkward. One of us is an archaeologist who studies how past peoples interacted with their environments. Two of us are geophysicists who investigate interactions between solar activity and Earth's ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 19, 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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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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If we're to land humans on Mars in the coming decades, we'll have to know what challenges await them when they get there.
Space Exploration
Jul 9, 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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Just last month, a powerful solar storm lit up skies across the northern hemisphere, producing vivid auroras visible as far south as parts of the northern United States.
Planetary Sciences
Jul 2, 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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