The First Recorded Space Weather Impact?

Much progress has been made in the study of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), the main drivers of terrestrial space weather thanks to the deployment of several missions in the last decade. The flow of energy required to power solar eruptions is beginning to be understood. The initiation of CMEs is routinely observed with cadences of tens of seconds with arc-second resolution. Their inner heliospheric evolution can now be imaged and followed routinely. Yet relatively little progress has been made in predicting the geoeffectiveness of a particular CME. Why is that? What are the issues holding back progress in medium-term forecasting of space weather? To answer these questions, we review, here, the measurements, status and open issues on the main CME geoeffective parameters; namely, their entrained magnetic field strength and configuration, their Earth arrival time and speed, and their mass (momentum). We offer strategies for improving the accuracy of the measurements and their forecasting in the near and mid-term future. To spark further discussion, we incorporate our suggestions into a top-level draft action plan that includes suggestions for sensor deployment, technology development and modelling/theory improvements. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Solar eruptions and their space weather impact’.

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Space weather impact on ground-based technological systems

Solnechno-Zemnaya Fizika ◽

10.12737/szf-73202106 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 73-110

Author(s):

Vyacheslav Pilipenko

Keyword(s):

Space Weather ◽

Geomagnetic Field ◽

Extreme Values ◽

Economic Effects ◽

Geoelectric Field ◽

Technological Systems ◽

Geomagnetic Disturbances ◽

Geomagnetic Variations ◽

Weather Impact ◽

Field Variability

This review, offered for the first time in the Russian scientific literature, is devoted to various aspects of the problem of the space weather impact on ground-based technological systems. Particular attention is paid to hazards to operation of power transmission lines, railway automation, and pipelines caused by geomagnetically induced currents (GIC) during geomagnetic disturbances. The review provides information on the main characteristics of geomagnetic field variability, on rapid field variations during various space weather mani-festations. The fundamentals of modeling geoelectric field disturbances based on magnetotelluric sounding algorithms are presented. The approaches to the assessment of possible extreme values of GIC are considered. Information about economic effects of space weather and GIC is collected. The current state and prospects of space weather forecasting, risk assessment for technological systems from GIC impact are discussed. While in space geophysics various models for predicting the intensity of magnetic storms and their related geomagnetic disturbances from observations of the interplanetary medium are being actively developed, these models cannot be directly used to predict the intensity and position of GIC since the description of the geomagnetic field variability requires the development of additional models. Revealing the fine structure of fast geomagnetic variations during storms and substorms and their induced GIC bursts appeared to be important not only from a practical point of view, but also for the development of fundamentals of near-Earth space dynamics. Unlike highly specialized papers on geophysical aspects of geomagnetic variations and engineering aspects of the GIC impact on operation of industrial transformers, the review is designed for a wider scientific and technical audience without sacrificing the scientific level of presentation. In other words, the geophysical part of the review is written for engineers, and the engineering part is written for geophysicists. Despite the evident applied orientation of the studies under consideration, they are not limited to purely engineering application of space geophysics results to the calculation of possible risks for technological systems, but also pose a number of fundamental scientific problems

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Space Weather Impact on High Latitude Ionospheric TEC During the End of Solar Cycle 23rd at Maitri, Antarctica

Advanced Science Letters ◽

10.1166/asl.2012.4879 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 241-246

Author(s):

Prakash Khatarkar ◽

Purushottam Bhawre ◽

Pravaiz A. Khan ◽

Azad A. Mansoori ◽

Shweta Mukherjee ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solar Cycle ◽

Space Weather ◽

High Latitude ◽

Weather Impact

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On Space Weather factors which can impact terrestrial physical and biological processes

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-5892 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Olga Stupishina ◽

Elena Golovina

Keyword(s):

Human Health ◽

Space Weather ◽

Interplanetary Space ◽

Electromagnetic Spectrum ◽

Biological Processes ◽

Weather Factors ◽

Weather Impact ◽

Saint Petersburg ◽

The Impact ◽

Weather Characteristics

The main idea of our work is to find out the perspective points for the investigation of space factors which can impact physical and biological processes on Earth surface. Some decades ago the complex of those factors was named as &#8220;Space Weather&#8221;. So the main purpose of our work is to discover the connection between Space Weather and Terrestrial Weather as well as the impact of this environmental complex (Space Weather plus Terrestrial Weather) on biological objects and thereby on the human health.The first part of the presented work contains the description of the Space Weather characteristics for the appearance moments of very long-live (more than 10 days) atmosphere pressure systems on different terrestrial latitude locations. These Long-live Pressure Systems (LPS) are interesting for us because some of them (namely anticyclones) can block pressure fields so they can create some dangerous situations for the human health as well as for the human activity. The different terrestrial latitude locations were: (1) Saint-Petersburg (59o57&#8216;N, 30o19&#8216;E) and (2) Tambov (52o43&#8216;N, 41o27&#8216;E). This latitude difference in observations is interesting for us because we know about the different affect of Space Weather variations on northern and southern places so we want to study this difference. &#160;The time-intervals were: (1) 1999-2014 years (Saint-Petersburg), (2) 2007-2014 years (Tambov). Space Weather&#160;parameters were: (1) global &#160;variations of Solar Activity (SA) parameters; (2) daily characteristics of the SA flare component in various bands of the electromagnetic spectrum; (3)&#160;variations of Interplanetary Space characteristics in Earth vicinity; (4) variations of daily statistics of Geomagnetic Field (GMF) characteristics. For the appearance moments of LPS we have discovered the interesting behaviour for follow Space Weather characteristics: variations of all global SA indices, variations of low energy (C-class) X-ray solar flares number, variations of proton fluxes, and variations of GMF parameters daily statistics. Also we have discovered the terrestrial-latitude difference in the atmosphere response on the Space Weather impact.The second part of our work contains the results of investigation of environmental (Space Weather plus Terrestrial Weather) impact on human health. This study was done for Saint-Petersburg region (the northern place from the previous point of our investigation). The human health status was indicated by: (1) Cardiac Rhythm Variations (CRV) of patients in the clinic of Medicine Academy, Sudden Cardiac Deaths (SCD) in Research Institute of Emergency Medicine, facts of hard situation in 6 local clinics in different places of Saint-Petersburg and its suburb. We have found out that the dramatic cardiac events (CRV extrema, SCD maxima, hard days in clinics) are connected with variations of solar radio bursts number (the burst type is &#8220;noise storm&#8221;), the spread daily statistics (coefficient of variation) of GMF z-component and with spread daily statistics (coefficient of oscillation) of air temperature.Results of our work may be used as the base for the hazard environmental monitoring.

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Extreme Space Weather Impact: An Emergency Management Perspective

Space Weather ◽

10.1002/2014sw001095 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 12 (8) ◽

pp. 530-537 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Mark H. MacAlester ◽

William Murtagh

Keyword(s):

Emergency Management ◽

Space Weather ◽

Weather Impact ◽

Management Perspective

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Space weather impact on the equatorial and low latitude F-region ionosphere over India

Annales Geophysicae ◽

10.5194/angeo-24-97-2006 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 97-105 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

R. S. Dabas ◽

R. M. Das ◽

V. K. Vohra ◽

C. V. Devasia

Keyword(s):

Magnetic Storm ◽

Electric Fields ◽

Space Weather ◽

Recovery Phase ◽

Equatorial Region ◽

Storm Events ◽

Low Latitude ◽

Equatorial Station ◽

Weather Impact ◽

F Region

Abstract. For a detailed study of the space weather impact on the equatorial and low latitude F-region, the ionospheric response features are analysed during the periods of three recent and most severe magnetic storm events of the present solar cycle which occurred in October and November 2003, and November 2004. The F-layer base height (h'F), peak height (hmF2) and critical frequency (foF2) data, from Trivandrum, an equatorial station and Delhi, a low latitude location, are examined during the three magnetic storm periods. The results of the analysis clearly shows that the height of the F-region (both h'F and hmF2), at the equator and low latitude, simultaneously increases by 200 to 300 km, in association with maximum negative excursion of Dst values around the midnight hours with a large depletion of ionization over the equator, which is followed by an ionization enhancement at low latitude during the recovery phase of the storm. At Delhi, fast variations up to 200 m/s are also observed in the F-layer vertical upward/downward velocity, calculated using Doppler shifts, associated with the maximum negative excursion of Dst. This shows that during magnetic disturbances, the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) expands to a much wider latitude than the normal fountain driven by the E/F-layer dynamo electric fields. It is also observed that during the main phase of the storm, at low latitude there is generally an enhancement of F-region ionization with an increase in h'F/hmF2 but in the equatorial region, the ionization collapses with a decrease in h'F/hmF2, especially after sunset hours. In addition, at the equator the normal pre-sunset hours' enhancement in h'F is considerably suppressed during storm periods. This might be due to changes in magnitude and direction of the zonal electric field affecting the upward E×B drift and hence the plasma distribution in the form of a decrease in electron density in the equatorial region and an increase in the low latitude region. In association with disturbance electric fields, the enhanced storm-induced equatorward meridional winds in the thermosphere can also further amplify the F-layer height rise at low latitudes during the post-midnight hours, as observed in two of the storm periods.

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