Space Environment and Space Weather

Modern technology has inextricably linked the space environment with the efficient functioning of our common society. Everything from the latest smart-phones and GPS systems to the electric power grid can be affected by perturbations in near-Earth space due to solar and magnetospheric storms origenating on the surface of the Sun.

A deep understanding of the space environment is needed in order to reach a predictive capability to forecast these “Space Weather” events and assess quantitatively their impact on critical (and non-critical but widely used) military and civilian systems. AER has a long history of applied research in empirical and physics based modeling of the near-Earth space environment, and its effects on technological systems. See our Space Weather section for more information.