The challenges of space weather today

CSES Program🚀

Space Weather refers to the environmental conditions in space as influenced by the Sun. These conditions can significantly affect Earth’s magnetic field and human activities, especially technologies and infrastructures.

The influence of the Sun

Space Weather effects are numerous and complex, impact various aspects of space activities and require coordinated efforts to mitigate their effects. To address these challenges, scientists are working on improving space weather monitoring and forecasting capabilities. In this context, the CSES-Limadou collaboration will focus on understanding the impact of geomagnetic storms on the ionosphere using data from the CSES constellation.

Artistic impression of a Solar Particle Event

Their research results include:

Solar Wind Pressure Variations: They studied how impulsive variations in solar wind pressure can trigger plasma bubbles in the ionosphere.
Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling: Their work includes analyzing the coupling between the magnetosphere and ionosphere during geomagnetic storms, providing insights into the dynamics of these interactions.
Solar Energetic Particle Events: They monitored solar energetic particle events and their impact on the near-Earth environment.
Forbush Decreases: They studied Forbush decreases, which are reductions in cosmic ray intensity caused by coronal mass ejections (CMEs) hitting Earth.
Geomagnetic Storms: They analyzed data from geomagnetic storms, such as the August 2018 and May 2021 storms, to understand their effects on the radiation belts and ionosphere.

Artistic impression of Northern Lights

The use of the CSES-02 satellite, acquiring data also at polar latitudes, will increase the knowledge of the magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling during active solar conditions, in particular of the Auroral Electrojet current and of the Field Aligned Current (FAC). CSES-02 will open the possibility to characterize for the first time the FAC electric field.

Scientific objectives

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More info CSES-02: In a Nutshell