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Space weather is the environmental condition within the Solar System, including the solar wind. It is studied especially surrounding the Earth, including conditions from the magnetosphere to the ionosphere and thermosphere. Space weather is distinct from terrestrial weather of the troposphere and stratosphere. The term was not used until the 1990s.
The Parker spiral shape of the solar wind changes the shape of the Sun's magnetic field in the outer Solar System: beyond about 10–20 astronomical units from the Sun, the magnetic field is nearly toroidal (pointed around the equator of the Sun) rather than poloidal (pointed from the North to the South pole, as in a bar magnet) or radial ...
The dynamic pressure of the wind dominates over the magnetic pressure through most of the Solar System (or heliosphere), so that the magnetic field is pulled into an Archimedean spiral pattern (the Parker spiral [6]) by the combination of the outward motion and the Sun's rotation. In near-Earth space, the IMF nominally makes an angle of ...
This phenomenon has been observed outside the Solar System, around stars other than the Sun, by NASA's now retired orbital GALEX telescope. The red giant star Mira in the constellation Cetus has been shown to have both a debris tail of ejecta from the star and a distinct shock in the direction of its movement through space (at over 130 ...
Solar radiation pressure is a source of orbital perturbations. It significantly affects the orbits and trajectories of small bodies including all spacecraft. Solar radiation pressure affects bodies throughout much of the Solar System. Small bodies are more affected than large ones because of their lower mass relative to their surface area.
Space weather is a branch of space physics and aeronomy, or heliophysics, concerned with the varying conditions within the Solar System and its heliosphere. This includes the effects of the solar wind , especially on the Earth's magnetosphere , ionosphere , thermosphere , and exosphere . [ 1 ]
Creating a numerical model of the solar system was the original goal of celestial mechanics, and has only been imperfectly achieved. It continues to motivate research. An orbit is the path that an object makes, around another object, whilst under the influence of a source of centripetal force, such as gravity.
What caused the Maunder Minimum and other grand minima, and how does the solar cycle recover from a minimum state? Coronal heating problem: Why is the Sun's corona so much hotter than the Sun's surface? Why is the magnetic reconnection effect many orders of magnitude faster than predicted by standard models? Space weather prediction: