How does Space Weather affect Earth and Human Society?
Although space weather forecasts are not normally featured on the evening news, space weather does impact life on Earth in many ways. Our modern, technologically complex systems – including communications, transportation, and electrical power systems – can be disrupted and damaged by space weather storms. Exposure to radiation can threaten astronauts and commercial air travelers alike, and has affected the evolution of life on Earth. Space weather probably alters the weather and climate on our planet, though we don’t yet have a precise understanding of those influences. Earth’s magnetic field is our radiation shield. Our planet’s magnetosphere keeps most of space weather’s effects where they belong; safely out in space! Some radiation does, however, reach orbiting satellites and astronauts, people in aircraft, and sometimes even the ground. Energetic particles can damage satellites and shorten their lifespans. Radiation poses a hazard to astronauts and to the passengers and crew onboar
