What is space weather ? What is the role of the Space Weather Prediction Center? The term space weather generally refers to conditions on the sun, in the solar wind, and within Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere and thermosphere that can influence the performance and reliability of space-borne and ground-based technological systems and can endanger human life or health. Space weather might be "stormy" in the vicinity of Mars while it is calm in the neighborhood of Jupiter. As modern civilization has become more dependent on technology, it has become more susceptible to the effects of space weather. "Conditions on the Sun and in the solar wind, magnetosphere, ionosphere and thermosphere that can influence the performance and reliability of space-borne and ground-based technological systems and can endanger human life or health." To deliver space weather products and services that meet the evolving needs of the nation.
Space Weather … Activity on the sun’s surface creates the conditions known as space weather, that can, at its worst, damage Earth satellites and cause electrical blackouts. (Click to watch) Also in Quicktime format: Large (269M) and Small ( 60M). The magnetic field sends most of the solar wind sliding around the planet. It’s as if the earth were inside a loosely inflated balloon. The Space Weather Prediction Center gathers, in real time, the available data that describes the state of the Sun, Heliosphere, Magnetosphere, and Ionosphere to form a picture of the environment from the Sun to the Earth. Space weather is a relatively new field of science dedicated to the study of these interactions between the Sun and the Earth. Space Weather Space weather describes changing environmental conditions in near-Earth space.
The earth contributes to space weather because it has a magnetic field and an atmosphere.
A CME aimed at Earth might disrupt space weather in our neck of the woods for a day or two, but could be followed by a period of less disturbed conditions. Space weather, conditions in space caused by the Sun that can affect satellites and technology on Earth as well as human life and health.
Other Space Weather Resources.
Magnetic fields, radiation, particles and matter, which have been ejected from the Sun, can interact with the Earth’s upper atmosphere and surrounding magnetic field to produce a variety of effects. Practitioners of space weather attempt to predict solar flares , coronal mass ejections , geomagnetic storms and other space-related phenomena.