An international team led by solar physicists from Peking University, China and National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), USA, has recently measured the global magnetic field of the solar corona for the first time.
"Space Weather" is the term used to describe the relentless barrage of particles that bathe the Earth and other planetary bodies of the solar system that originate in the steady evolution, and catastrophic breakdown, of magnetic structures on the Sun.
In 1844 Schwabe discovered that the number of sunspots increased and decreased over a period of about 11 years, that variation became known as the sunspot cycle.
Mausumi Dikpati presents a nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic shallow-water model for the solar tachocline (MHD-SWT) that generates quasi-periodic tachocline nonlinear oscillations (TNOs) that can be identified with the recently discovered solar 'seasons'.
Space weather forecasting capability is six decades behind terrestrial weather forecasting," you will often hear at gatherings of scientists determined to understand the connections between our star and our home on Earth. It is an accurate statement in terms of capability.