Space Weather - The Sun-Earth Connection

Dr. Ruth Skoug `89
Space Science and Applications Group
Los Alamos National Laboratory

The Sun is very dynamic, with both spatial and temporal variations over a range of scale sizes.  Changes in the particle and magnetic field output of the Sun can have an impact on the magnetic environment of the Earth (the magnetosphere), causing geomagnetic storms and other disturbances.  By analogy with terrestrial weather, these disturbances in space and their effects on humans and man-made systems are referred to as space weather. 

Geomagnetic disturbances can affect, for example, ground-based power systems and communications networks, and satellites and astronauts in space.  Understanding the connection between processes occurring at the Sun, their manifestations in interplanetary space, and their effects on the Earth's magnetosphere is a subject of current research, and is important for the possibility of forecasting space weather conditions. 

Los Alamos has been involved in space research from the beginning of the space age, and is currently involved in projects addressing a number of aspects of the space weather picture.  In this talk, I will present an overview of space weather processes from the Sun to the Earth, discuss the scientific and practical effects of space weather, and describe current research in space physics at Los Alamos.

*Visit sponsored by the Grace A. Whittier Endowment