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Everybody knows what weather is – sun, rain, wind, cloud, etc. But there's no atmosphere in space, so what is space weather? It can endanger astronauts, and in our technological world, a severe solar storm could affect everybody.

What Is Space Weather

Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 10/01/14 12:27 PM.

Mona Evans
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Here is a diagram showing many of the effects of solar storms. A lot of them look a bit technical because we make use of technologies we don't understand. For example, communications satellites are particularly vulnerable to space weather events. Many of them are in high orbits that keep them over the same area of Earth - this is called a geostationary or geosynchronous orbit.


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A few years ago the United Kingdom added space weather to the National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies. Yesterday there was an announcement that the Meteorological Office (known as the Met Office) were launching a space weather forecasting service. They've been working with the USA's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on this.

It's good to see a government taking this seriously but solar forecasting is in its infancy. We understand only generally the solar processes involved. Monitoring satellites don't give complete coverage. Even if we know a Coronal Mass Ejection is coming our way, the best predictions of its arrival time are plus or minus six hours.


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One of NASA's STEREo spacecraft has been out of radio contact for about two weeks since a planned reset. They're still hopeful for a rescue. If the STEREO-Behind spacecraft can’t be recovered, this could cause a data gap in the mission next year — which is unique because it looks at the far side of the Sun. NASA hasn't said how badly solar weather forecasts are affected, but in other materials they have said both STEREO spacecraft are a crucial part of this work.


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SpaceWeather.com reports big solar flares coming from AR2192, a sunspot nearly the size of Jupiter. Here is a picture of the extreme ultraviolet flash from the most powerful of the flares. It was taken on October 22 by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

The flare caused a brief blackout of HF radio communications in parts of Asia and Australia.

More flares to come!


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Since the BellaOnline server crash removed the article, I've re-loaded it and you can read What Is Space Weather? at its, I think, temporary new URL.


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