Space weather
This effect was eventually attributed to overhead electric currents flowing in the ionosphere and magnetosphere by Balfour Stewart in 1882, and confirmed by Arthur Schuster in 1889 from analysis of magnetic observatory data.
In 1852, astronomer and British Major General Edward Sabine showed that the probability of the occurrence of geomagnetic storms on Earth was correlated with the number of sunspots, demonstrating a novel solar-terrestrial interaction.
Space weather phenomena can cause damaging surges in long-distance transmission lines and expose passengers and crew of aircraft travel to radiation,[3][4] especially on polar routes.
Ground-based data obtained during IGY demonstrated that the aurorae occurred in an auroral oval, a permanent region of luminescence 15 to 25° in latitude from the magnetic poles and 5 to 20° wide.
[5] In 1958, the Explorer I satellite discovered the Van Allen belts,[6] regions of radiation particles trapped by the Earth's magnetic field.
In 1969, INJUN-5 (or Explorer 40[7]) made the first direct observation of the electric field impressed on the Earth's high-latitude ionosphere by the solar wind.
[2] The term regained popularity in the 1990s along with the belief that space's impact on human systems demanded a more coordinated research and application framework.
A variety of physical phenomena is associated with space weather, including geomagnetic storms and substorms, energization of the Van Allen radiation belts, ionospheric disturbances and scintillation of satellite-to-ground radio signals and long-range radar signals, aurorae, and geomagnetically induced currents at Earth's surface.
Coronal mass ejections are also important drivers of space weather, as they can compress the magnetosphere and trigger geomagnetic storms.
In most cases, the radiation causes an erroneous signal or changes one bit in memory of a spacecraft's electronics (single event upsets).
The rocket can increase altitude to extend lifetime, to direct the re-entry towards a particular (marine) site, or route the satellite to avoid collision with other spacecraft.
Radio signals in the UHF band (300 MHz to 3 GHz) transit a disturbed ionosphere, but a receiver may not be able to keep locked to the carrier frequency.
At auroral and polar latitudes, small space weather events that occur frequently disrupt HF communications.
Transpolar airline routes are particularly sensitive to space weather, in part because Federal Aviation Regulations require reliable communication over the entire flight.
When a space weather event causes radiation exposure to exceed the safe level set by aviation authorities,[21] the aircraft's flight path is diverted.
Accuracy requirements are strict, due to target size – reservoirs may only be a few tens to hundreds of meters across – and safety, because of the proximity of other boreholes.
Another suggestion, that variations in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) flux subtly influence existing drivers of the climate and tip the balance between El Niño/La Niña events[32] collapsed when new research showed this was not possible.
In addition, a link has been suggested between high energy charged particles (such as SEPs and cosmic rays) and cloud formation.
[33] This is a topic of ongoing research at CERN, where experiments test the effect of high-energy charged particles on atmosphere.
[35] Most recently, a statistical connection has been reported between the occurrence of heavy floods and the arrivals of high-speed solar wind streams (HSSs).
The enhanced auroral energy deposition during HSSs is suggested as a mechanism for the generation of downward propagating atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs).
Magnetic observatories have been in continuous operations for decades to centuries, providing data to inform studies of long-term changes in space climatology.
The presence of cosmic rays in the near-Earth space environment can be detected by monitoring high-energy neutrons at ground level.
IMP-8 was followed by ISEE-3, which was placed near the L1 Sun-Earth Lagrangian point, 235 Earth radii above the surface (about 1.5 million km, or 924,000 miles) and continuously monitored the solar wind from 1978 to 1982.
SOHO is a main source of near-real time solar data for both research and space weather prediction and inspired the STEREO mission.
The Yohkoh spacecraft at LEO observed the Sun from 1991 to 2001 in the X-ray portion of the solar spectrum and was useful for both research and space weather prediction.
Starting sometime after 2015, the GOES-R generation of GOES spacecraft will replace the SXI with a solar EUV image (SUVI) similar to the one on SOHO and STEREO and the particle sensor will be augmented with a component to extend the energy range down to 30 eV.
designate U.S. built commercial hardware, services, and products as “Space Weather Economic Innovation Zone” activities; Finally, it recommended that U.S. built commercial hardware, services, and products be tracked as Space Weather Economic Innovation Zone contributions within agency reports.
In 2015 the U.S. Congress bill HR1561 provided groundwork where social and environmental impacts from a Space Weather Economic Innovation Zone could be far-reaching.
It seeks to:[65] A summary of the broad technical capabilities in space weather that are available from the association can be found on their web site http://www.acswa.us.
