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.
High above Earth's poles, intense electrical currents called electrojets flow through the upper atmosphere when auroras glow in the sky. These auroral electrojets push about a million amps of electrical charge around the ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 25, 2025
0
19
The sun periodically ejects huge bubbles of plasma from its surface that contain an intense magnetic field. These events are called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs. When two of these ejections collide, they can generate powerful ...
Astronomy
Feb 24, 2025
0
47
There are trillions of charged particles—protons and electrons, the basic building blocks of matter—whizzing around above your head at any given time. These high-energy particles, which can travel at close to the speed of ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 5, 2025
0
39
Researchers have created an improved traffic light system for predicting geomagnetic storms. They are now testing how well these algorithms can prepare us for incoming space storms that can wreak havoc by knocking out satellites ...
Astronomy
Jan 24, 2025
0
58
Two NASA rocket missions are taking to the Alaskan skies in hopes of discovering why some auroras flicker, others pulsate, and still others are riddled with holes. Understanding these peculiar features is part of NASA's goal ...
Space Exploration
Jan 21, 2025
0
33
Planets around other stars need to be prepared for extreme weather conditions, according to a new study from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's (European Space Agency's) XMM-Newton that examined the effects of X-rays ...
Astrobiology
Jan 17, 2025
3
74
A team led by researchers at the University of Tokyo has created a dataset of the whole atmosphere, enabling new research to be conducted on previously difficult-to-study regions. The work has been published in Progress in ...
Planetary Sciences
Jan 10, 2025
0
91
Onboard computers are critical to space exploration, aiding nearly every spacecraft function from propulsion and navigation systems to life support technology, science data retrieval and analysis, communications, and reentry.
Space Exploration
Jan 8, 2025
0
35
At night, charged particles from the sun caught by Earth's magnetosphere rain down into the atmosphere. The impacting particles rip electrons from atoms in the atmosphere, creating both beauty and chaos. These high-energy ...
Planetary Sciences
Dec 18, 2024
0
137
As seen across North America at sometimes surprisingly low latitudes, brilliant auroral displays provide evidence of solar activity in the night sky. More is going on than the familiar visible light shows during these events, ...
Planetary Sciences
Dec 17, 2024
0
30
