Physics of Space Storms

Abstract

Space weather can be defined as a subtopic of solar–terrestrial physics, which deals with the spatially and temporally variable conditions in the Sun, solar wind, magnetosphere, and ionosphere that may disturb or damage technological systems in space and on the ground and endanger human health. Space storms are the strongest and most harmful appearances of space weather. During the 1990s space weather grew to a prominent, if not the dominant, sector within solar–terrestrial physics. Also a significant fraction of basic space plasma physics research became motivated by its potential to contribute to useful space weather applications in- cluding more accurate forecasts. A key reason for the evolution of space weather activities is the growing understanding that a great number of systems in space, human beings in- cluded, and on the ground are vulnerable to severe space weather conditions. In fact, due to miniaturization and increasing complexity many technological systems are becoming more sensitive to the radiation environment than before. At the same time modern society is getting increasingly dependent on space infrastructure. In future the human presence in space, including space tourism, is expected to become more prominent. Some day we most likely will return to the Moon and, perhaps, initiate manned missions to Mars. On the ground the effects of space storms, such as saturation of transformers in electric power transmission networks or perturbations in telecommunication and global positioning sys- tems, may be easier to handle, but this requires that the underlying physics be understood much better than today