When giant solar storms hit Earth, they trigger beautiful auroral displays high in Earth's atmosphere. There's a dark side to this solar activity, though. The "space weather" it sets off also threatens our technology. The ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 1, 2024
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14
Last week, wildfires blazed across western Canada, turning the town of Jasper, located near Alberta's Jasper National Park, into ashes. The local government estimated that the fire damaged or destroyed up to half of the town's ...
Environment
Jul 29, 2024
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1
Despite the 150 million kilometers that separate it from the Earth, the sun does more than just light our way: it also impacts our electricity networks, and even our transport.
Planetary Sciences
Jul 26, 2024
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38
Two recent studies published in The Astrophysical Journal discuss findings regarding solar flare properties and a new classification index and the sun's magnetic field, specifically what's called solar magnetic reconnection.
Astronomy
Jul 15, 2024
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8
Roads and sidewalks in some areas get so hot that skin contact could result in second-degree burns.
Earth Sciences
Jul 3, 2024
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0
Deadly heat that blanketed the United States, Mexico and Central America recently was made 35 times more likely due to global warming, an international network of climate scientists said on Thursday.
Environment
Jun 20, 2024
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0
Climate skeptics are scapegoating a weather modification technique known as cloud seeding to deny the role of global warming in historic floods that have recently devastated countries from Brazil to Kenya.
Environment
Jun 11, 2024
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81
In a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters, researchers have discovered that the turbulence in the thermosphere exhibits the same physical laws as the wind in the lower atmosphere. Furthermore, wind in the thermosphere ...
Planetary Sciences
Jun 7, 2024
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164
Starship, SpaceX's massive prototype rocket that may one day send humans to Mars, is poised for its next flight on Thursday.
Space Exploration
Jun 6, 2024
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54
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams returned to Kennedy Space Center on May 28 as their much-delayed flight to the International Space Station aboard Boeing's CST-100 Starliner looks like it may finally happen ...
Space Exploration
May 30, 2024
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28
Space weather is the concept of changing environmental conditions in near-Earth space. It is distinct from the concept of weather within a planetary atmosphere, and deals with phenomena involving ambient plasma, magnetic fields, radiation and other matter in space. "Space weather" often implicitly means the conditions in near-Earth space within the magnetosphere, but it is also studied in interplanetary (and occasionally interstellar space).
Within our own solar system, space weather is greatly influenced by the speed and density of the solar wind and the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) carried by the solar wind plasma. A variety of physical phenomena are associated with space weather, including geomagnetic storms and substorms, energization of the Van Allen radiation belts, ionospheric disturbances and scintillation, aurora and geomagnetically induced currents at Earth's surface. Coronal Mass Ejections and their associated shock waves are also important drivers of space weather as they can compress the magnetosphere and trigger geomagnetic storms. Solar Energetic Particles, accelerated by coronal mass ejections or solar flares, are also an important driver of space weather as they can damage electronics onboard spacecraft through induced electric currents,[citation needed] and threaten the life of astronauts.
Space weather exerts a profound influence in several areas related to space exploration and development. Changing geomagnetic conditions can induce changes in atmospheric density causing the rapid degradation of spacecraft altitude in Low Earth orbit. Geomagnetic storms due to increased solar activity can potentially blind sensors aboard spacecraft, or interfere with on-board electronics. An understanding of space environmental conditions is also important in designing shielding and life support systems for manned spacecraft. There is also some concern that geomagnetic storms may also expose conventional aircraft flying at high latitudes to increased amounts of radiation.
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