Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 01/01/2013 - 10:49
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Space Weather Monitoring on the Antarctic Plateau 2013

Hello, my name is Tanner and i go to Twin Falls High School in Twin Falls, Idaho and i have been following your expedition and wanted to ask you a question. My question was "What benefits does discovering this Space Weather have to people around the world?".

Mon, 01/21/2013 - 11:06

Tim Spuck

Tanner,Every 11 years activity increases on the sun. We see significantly more sun spots during this time and more coronal mass ejections (CME). CME are massive eruptions off the surface of the sun that send streams of charged particles toward the Earth. When the particles slam into Earth's magnetic field they spiral down the magnetic field lines and create an electrical current in the Earth's upper atmosphere that is often seen as spectacular Northern or Southern Lights (aura). If the CME is strong enough there's not only the potential for the spectacular display of lights in the night sky, but this stream of charged particles could disrupt or even destroy satellites orbiting the Earth. Our society has become dependent on satellites for communication, weather prediction, GPS, and national security. In addition these CME events could even knock-out parts of the power grid here in the US and elsewhere in the World causing electrical blackouts that could potentially last for months.
It's hoped that one day the science being conducted by the AGO Project will help us better predict CME events that cause a significant threat to human activity here on Earth, giving us the necessary time to react (e.g. put satellites into safe-mode before the height of the solar storm hits) to protect satellites as well as the power grid system here on Earth.