Space weather is a branch of Space physics and aeronomy (the science of the upper region of the earth) or heliophysics (the science of the sun) which is concerned with the conditions on the sun, in the solar wind, and within the Earth’s atmosphere that can influence the performance and reliability of space-borne and ground-based technological systems and can endanger human life or health.
One of the importance of understanding space weather is the awareness and avoidance of the consequences attached to space weather events either by system design or by efficient warning and prediction systems. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region’s climate.
A major advance in space weather forecasting will come from our ability to determine the speed at which the phenomenon is moving accurately. This will be achieved with stereoscopic views of the sun from NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft. This pair of spacecraft will use 3-D vision to construct a global picture of the sun and its influences. Accurately predicting arrival times on Earth and correctly forecasting the scale of impact of an event would help to avoid costly false alarms. Read more…
