Sun, Earth, Planet, Space, Atmosphere and Ocean–As our planet becomes one among many thousands of known worlds, our needs to understand how Earth’s space and climate react to our variable star grow in urgency.
Solar flares—a sudden eruption of electromagnetic radiation at the Sun—are known to have significant impacts on Earth’s upper atmosphere and ionosphere, but their collective effects on geospace as an integrated system have never been examined.
While solar radiation enables and sustains life on Earth, it also produces “space weather” that can profoundly impact different technologies, including telecommunications, satellite navigation, and the electric power grid.
Philip Judge is a senior researcher in physics at the High Altitude Observatory. Education and outreach has been a major focus and passion during his scientific career. He has influenced and encouraged many young scientists to pursue careers in solar physics.
"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.
We study visible and infrared spectra, from 310 nm to 5 microns, obtained during the 21st August 2017 eclipse. The instruments were situated at Camp Wyoba (altitude 2402 m) on Casper Mountain, WY.
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