Solar Wind Ask Dave a weather question

Dave Thurlow, Host

 

Photo: Jan Curtis

Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow from the Mount Washington Observatory. The solar wind is a continuous outflow, from the sun, of high energy, high temperature particles, primarily hydrogen nuclei and electrons flying separately. It's called a plasma. And these are the particles, they were originally part of the sun that have been heated to such high temperatures that they have enough energy to fly free and leave the sun forever. And whereas that is a continuous process, it isn't a smooth process. In other words, you sometimes get severe bursts of activity in solar winds. And in the sense that they are gasses flying through space, they are analogous to our atmosphere in wind."

Now when these severe bursts of solar wind activity occur, they can overload the magnetic fields surrounding the earth called the vanallen belts. And when this occurs, it create some interesting effects on earth:

Illustration courtesy of the High Altitude Observatory/NCAR

"Auroras, power blackouts, communications problems, radio communications problems." Dr. Comins says you can expect communication disruptions next year, when the sun's solar wind increases significantly. For more information on solar wind, sjfbweriuyfha hey that doesn't start 'till next year, be sure to visit our website at weathernotebook.org. Our show's Senior Editor is Jay Allison and music heard on The Weather Notebook is written and composed by Georg Brandl. Thanks to Subaru and the National Science Foundation.