Predicting Space Storms

Today in class we are learning about a career as a space weather forecaster.  Someone in this career uses spacecraft, telescopes, radar, and supercomputers to monitor the sun, solar winds, and the space environment in order to forecast the weather in space.

A space weather forecaster has to take many math and science courses.  If you are interested in this career, you may want to take some of these classes in high school: astronomy, earth science, calculus, physics, and chemistry.

Did you know? Magnetic storms in space can distort aircraft radio signals and navigation devices, pump extra electricity into power lines and pipelines causing blackouts and fuel leaks, and disrupt the work of satellites.  In 1997, a communications satellite went dead after a coronal mass ejection, or an explosion of solar particles from the sun.  As a result, television signals, telephone calls, and part of a U.S. earth-quake monitoring system were all disrupted.

Here are some interesting videos about space weather and space storms.

Monitoring Solar Storms Activity at the National Space Weather Center

(Video from Discovery Education and United Streaming)

Flare-Up: Solar Storms Caus Problems on Earth

(Video from NBC Learn)

Martian Dust Devils  Orbiter Sees Stormy Weather on Mars

(Video from NBC Learn)

 

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(They are .jpeg pictures, the only way I can link them on the blog)