Phys.org August 11, 2021 In 2020 NSF and NASA created the Space Weather with Quantified Uncertainties (SWQU) program. The main change in version 2 was the refinement of the numerical grid in the magnetosphere, several improvements in the algorithms, and a recalibration of the empirical parameters. The Geospace Model provides only about 30 minutes of advanced warning. Researchers at the University of Michigan are working to increase lead time to one to three days. They hope to start from the Sun, using remote observation of the Sun’s surface instead of the current data from a satellite measuring plasma parameters one […]
Category Archives: Space weather
Extreme solar storms may be more frequent than previously thought
Phys.org October 7, 2019 The Carrington Event of 1859 is one of the most extreme solar storms observed in the last two centuries and was caused by a large coronal mass ejection. Based mostly on records from the Western Hemisphere, leaving a considerable data gap in the Eastern Hemisphere, scientists thought events like the Carrington Event were very rare, happening maybe once a century. To fill the gaps in their knowledge of the Carrington event from studying only the Western Hemisphere records, an international team of researchers (Japan, UK, USA – University of Maryland, NCAR, Italy, Portugal) compiled and analyzed […]
Earth’s atmosphere stretches out to the moon – and beyond
Phys.org February 20, 2019 Where our atmosphere merges into outer space, there is a cloud of hydrogen atoms called the geocorona. An international team of researchers (Russia, France, Finland) found that the measurements made in 1996, 1997 and 1998 showed geocorona extends at least up to 100 Earth Radii encompassing the orbit of the Moon. The extra source of hydrogen is not significant enough to facilitate space exploration. These particles do not pose any threat for space travelers on future crewed missions orbiting the moon. But the Earth’s geocorona could interfere with future astronomical observations performed in the vicinity of […]
Hole in ionosphere is caused by sudden stratospheric warming
Phys.org August 7, 2018 A team of researchers in the US (MIT Haystack Observatory, University of Colorado, University of Puerto Rico, University of Wisconsin) used decades data from Haystack and Puerto Rico observatories to study the sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event from January 2013 separating the effects of other known effects on the SSW. They found that electron density in the nighttime ionosphere was dramatically reduced by the effects of the SSW for several days, a significant hole was formed that stretched across hemispheres from latitudes 55 degrees S to 45 degrees N also and they measured a strong downward […]