GEOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Solar wind variations can disturb it, leading to “space weather”–geomagnetic storms that can penetrate our atmosphere, threatening spacecraft and astronauts, disrupting navigation systems and wreaking havoc on power grids. On the positive side, these storms also produce Earth’s spectacular aurora.

Detailed explanation-2: -She explains in more detail how the solar wind disrupts our magnetosphere: “As the wind flows toward Earth, it carries with it the Sun’s magnetic field. It moves very fast, then smacks right into Earth’s magnetic field. The blow causes a shock to our magnetic protection, which can result in turbulence.”

Detailed explanation-3: -The solar wind interacts with Earth’s magnetic field, distorting it and pointing it away from the sun. Fortunately, the magnetic field deflects most of these solar-wind particles, so they don’t reach Earth’s surface.

Detailed explanation-4: -These high-energy solar wind particles cause aurora at planets with a magnetic field, but they can also be disruptive to planet atmospheres and surfaces. This rain of plasma particles can collide with particles high up in a planet’s atmosphere, giving the atmospheric particles enough energy to escape a planet.

Detailed explanation-5: -The whole process is still not fully understood, but energy from the solar wind is constantly building up in the magnetosphere, and this energy is what powers auroras.