Space Weather

[Abbstar]

Help on explanations of types of Space Weather and how they are formed
I need to know more on sunspots, solar flares, radio blackouts, geomagnetic storms, the atmosphere, the structure of the sun, what happens when the space weather reaches Earth, and if you have any ideas on how it may affect plants(broad beans in my experiment) on Earth.

[deleted-93346]

You have asked questions covering a vast and very interesting set of topics. I would recommend you read two Wikipedia articles as a starting point: "the Sun" and "space weather". Here are the two URL's

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_weather

I cannot think of any direct way in which space weather would affect the growth of plants in any experiments that you could perform. Very indirectly, space weather may have a small influence on terrestrial weather, which in turn would affect the growth of plants outdoors. Also, space weather will influence to some extent the amount and kind of cosmic rays reaching the earth's surface and thus, to a very small degree, the rate of mutation of plant cells, but I think this effect will be far too small and subtle to be detected in any experiment you could perform for a science fair. If you are interested in a science fair project involving plant growth you may find Science Buddies Topic Selection Wizard useful; it is at

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... gister.php

or you can browse our project database directly at

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ody#browse

I hope these can help you find a project that fits your interests.

Feel free to ask any other questions you have, we are here to help.

Best of luck!

[Abbstar]

Thanks for helping me find info on the sun and space weather.
I have already looked at those websites, and I've got info on those two topics now.

Do you know anything about geomagnetic storms, radio blackouts, coronal holes and flares or solar flares?
If you know this youself or have any websites that could help me that would be fantastic.

Could you please also tell me what the difference between a geomagnetic storm and a magnetic storm is? I'm not completely sure, as I see the names everywhere. I think they are the same but could you please let me know?

[deleted-93346]

Again, a wide range of topics. Naturally, looking up each on Wikipedia will produce a lot of information plus references. Here are a few other sites that might be of use:

http://www.slideshare.net/reneeariesen/unit-3-the-sun

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/General_Astronomy/The_Sun

http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/sun.php

I think you are correct that magnetic storm is just a looser word for geomagnetic storm in most contexts. The big guns of solar-terrestrial interactions are the CME's, coronal mass ejections. Surprisingly, these were first discovered only about 40 years ago, much later than sun-spots, prominences, and solar flares. They pack quite a punch and when they smash into the magnetic bubble that surrounds the earth the earth's radiation belts and auroras get very disturbed. Effects can range from frying satellite electronics all the way to flipping the breakers on long distance high voltage transmission lines. Also not such a good time to be out in space when one hits, although the ISS has sheltered areas where the astronauts can take refuge when necessary. But no effect on beans ...

[Abbstar]

Thanks
Have you ever heard of any research to prove that space weather doesn't affect plants on Earth?
Or any other type of research which I can reference that is related with any space weather affecting Earth in any way?

Also, we're not allowed to use wikipedia in our science intro. We can use it for a starting point, but I think my teacher ould prefer us not to reference it.
Wikipedia would be an awesome reference, but I am going to try to write my 4,000 words intro without it.

[deleted-93346]

Here is an abstract that has some useful info on effects on power systems

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 779701096X

Here is a URL for a long paper on geomagnetic effects on the atmosphere. You would be most interested in the sections on weather in the troposphere (lowest part of the atmosphere). Reading it is a little tricky. The paper will download as a zip compressed file folder. You’ll need to decompress it. My computer, MacBook Pro with MacOS 10.6, does this automatically when I open the file (called “htm99312.zip”). That produces a folder called “hrm99312”. Inside that folder are a bunch of html files. Open the file called “GAI99312.htm” and the paper should pop up in your web browser. From then on it’s just like reading an html article on the web. This sounds hard but was very easy on my Mac. If you are unfortunate enough to be using Windows on a PC, it may or may not go as smoothly. The paper you get will have enough scientific references to choke a horse, much less your teacher

Here is an abstract saying geomagnetic storms do not affect human mortality

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v2 ... 302a0.html

Another one, that I don’t put much faith in based on my prejudices about Soviet and former Soviet research — still, only data will eventually tell if these guys are right,

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 2697001193

Anyway, that’s plenty to get you started. BTW I used Google Scholar to find all these references.

Feel free to ask any more questions that come up.

[theborg]

As mentioned, Space weather as used in the context above is pretty much generated exclusively by the Sun and through interaction with the Earths magnetic field causes all sorts of phenomena, such as the Arora. NASA has a satellite mission named the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) designed to continuously monitor the Sun with an array of sensors. Check out the following web address:

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/home.html

You will find SOHO pictures and movies of many of the solar phenomena John mentions. Also, there is a classroom tab that has some good student and teacher resources you may find helpful.

[Abbstar]

Thanks
Do you know anything about coronal mass ejections?

[theborg]

In very simple terms, a CME is when the Sun throws high energy, charged particles out into space all at once, in a violent burst. One theory is that this is caused through an attempt to restore electromagnetic equilibrium within the Sun. Additionally, they may be linked to Sunspot activity. A SB project on CMEs can be found at:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p021.shtml

That's very broad, please post if you have a specific question.

[Abbstar]

Thanks, I did find it useful!
Do you know if radiation effects plants? CME and solar flare radiation in particular.

I was reading that it might just affect seeds, but then somewhere else it said that radiation affects fast-growing plants
I'm using fast-growing plants in my experiment, so if you find or know anything that is useful please let me know!

[Abbstar]

I found this website: http://plantsinaction.science.uq.edu.au ... nt-biology

I think it is ok, but could you please check that it is accurate?
It will help me SO much!!! It could prove that I am right. Or at least half right anyway.

[deleted-93346]

You might be better off posting your question on the life, earth, social sciences panel. I am not a plant scientist, thus I'm not qualified to judge the quality of this site. That said, it certainly looks like a solid site to me. You should be cautious not to interpret this site to say more than it really does. I suspect what caught your eye was this: "Key agents in this mid-1960s ozone depletion are believed to include altered sunspot activity, emissions from volcanic eruptions and atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons in the early 1960s." Note the caveat "are believed to include" and the large range of possibilities. You should look and see if they provide references for their statement, and if possible, read them so you can get some idea of how much actual evidence exists. Climate change is a very complex and often controversial area of research. Also going from the decade timescales mentioned to any time scale in your own results may be quite a stretch. You may find useful the trusty phrase "my results seem at least consistent with the suggestions of so and so (reference here), although more research would be needed to confirm that". Works for me usually.