William Atkins
Monday, 12 January 2009 19:36
Science -
Space
Page 2 of 3
The NAS report continues,
“As a first step toward determining the socioeconomic impacts of extreme space weather events and addressing the questions of space weather risk assessment and management, a public workshop was held in May 2008.”
“The workshop brought together representatives of industry, the government, and academia to consider both direct and collateral effects of severe space weather events, the current state of the space weather services infrastructure in the United States, the needs of users of space weather data and services, and the ramifications of future technological developments for contemporary society's vulnerability to space weather."
"The workshop concluded with a discussion of un- or underexplored topics that would yield the greatest benefits in space weather risk management.”
According to the NAS report major eruptions in the solar wind, what is called coronal mass ejections, could produce major damage in communications, power grids, and other technologies on the Earth.
The Sun produces plasma continuously in the form of what we call the solar wind.
Sometimes, though, the Sun releases larger-than-normal amounts of plasma materials within gigantic clouds of plasma called coronal mass ejections.
Then this happens these clouds containing billions of tons of matter can cause large magnetic storms in the Earth’s magnetosphere and upper atmosphere.
What happens when these solar clouds appear? Please read page three.
