Solar Weather

     Solar weather comes from the violent erruptions that originate from the sun. These explosions can come from solar flares, CME's (Coronal Mass Ejections), or other solar activity. These emit radiation as plasma or as electromagnetic radiation (visible light). Some of the eruptions barely affect earth. Others affect earth greatly. This is because the solar disturbances aren't always heading straight for earth. Sometimes it is pointed away from earth. Also, earth's magnetic field repels most bursts of solar wind.

      A few years ago, scientists didn't know much about what went on in space. They saw the effects of solar wind, but didn't understand where it came from or why it happened. In today's advanced society, we not only know how, but when solar disturbances occur. But we are only able to predict a CME 12 hours after it already happened. There are even some websites dedicated to giving the solar forecast or realtime readings.

Some of them are:

     Some advantages of knowing about space weather is that it is possible to alert astronauts about gusts of solar wind and have them move into a protective shelter.

      One day on May 10th 1999 through May 12th 1999 there was an unusual event happening. There was almost no solar wind. The velocity at which the sun normally emits particles was almost half of its normal velocity. The density of the particles emitted from the sun decreased by 98%.

     The scientists were able to observe the properties of the sun's corona uninterrrupted. Usually there were protons and other particles that got in the way of measuring specific properties of the corona accurately. One effect of this was that there was a massive change in the shape of earth's magnetic field, or magnetosphere and made a big aurora in the northern hemisphere. The low density of the particles bombarding the magnetosphere decreased the pressure. This caused the shape of earth's magnetosphere to get larger.

This page was researched and compiled by Brad