Space Weather

Definition

The conditions and phenomena in space and specifically in the near-earth environment that may affect space assets or space operations. Space weather may impact spacecraft and ground-based systems. Space weather is influenced by phenomena such as solar flare activity, ionospheric variability, energetic particle events, and geophysical events.

Causes

In order to protect systems and people that might be at risk from space weather effects, we need to understand the causes of space weather.

The Sun is the main driver of space weather. Sudden ejections of plasma and magnetic field structures from the Sun's atmosphere called coronal mass ejections (CMEs) together with sudden bursts of radiation termed solar flares all cause space weather effects at the Earth. In addition, non-solar sources such as galactic cosmic rays, meteoroids and space debris can all be considered as altering space weather conditions at the Earth.

Effects

Space Weather effects are highly relevant to our daily life on Earth. Topics such as crew and passenger radiation risks on aircraft, communication problems, effects on synthetic aperture radar systems, GPS systems, etc. may all be directly linked to space weather and should be taken very seriously. Even power-line failures and corrosion effects observed in pipelines on Earth may be the direct result of space weather induced effects. This further stresses the importance of this discipline not only for the future of manned space missions, but also to the present situation of life on Earth.