Space Weather. Storms from the Sun

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Description

The Sun continuously sheds its skin, blowing a ferocious wind of charged particles in all directions, including Earth's. From time to time, storms on the Sun's surface - solar flares, coronal mass ejections - toss off added masses of energy and ions. When that turbulence slams into Earth, it produces "space weather," a natural phenomenon with sometimes spectacular consequences, from colorful auroras to satellite, power, and communications failures. Space weather isn't new; the Sun has buffeted Earth with solar particles since the planet first formed. What has changed is society. This science bulletin reveals how our increasing use of satellite technology has made us vulnerable to solar storms, and how solar scientists - "space weathermen" - are learning how to predict and forecast the Sun's activity.