• Question: How does the solar wind affect Earth?

    Asked by khughes08 to Hermine, Katy, Laura, Nathalie, Paula on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Nathalie Pettorelli

      Nathalie Pettorelli answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Hi there,

      Well cool consequences of solar winds are aurora near by the poles! Satellite-based communication and geomagnetic storm near the poles are then the main disruptive effects caused by solar winds on planet earth 😉

    • Photo: Paula Salgado

      Paula Salgado answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      ooops, some glitch in the system and I get the same question twice…

      Basically, it interferes with the Earth’s magnetic field. 😉

    • Photo: Laura Dixon

      Laura Dixon answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Solar winds contain high energy particles which cause changes in the magnetic field of the earth when they collide which can cause problems with electrical equipment.

    • Photo: Katy Mee

      Katy Mee answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Not my area of expertise at all but apprently the solar wind can have a large influence on our ionosphere (the uppermost part of the atmosphere), Earth’s magnetic field and Earth’s auroras (light phenomenon that generally ahppes round the poles). It can also affect our telecommunication systems by causing damage to satellites e.g:

      http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/9701/21/cosmic.chaos/index.html

    • Photo: Hermine Schnetler

      Hermine Schnetler answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      A solar wind is a highly magnetically charged high energy wind. They can disrupt satellite communication and cause the occasional geomagnetic storm at the poles that is about the most we get. We can also see them in passing comets and the Aurora Borealis and the Aurora Australis.

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