Overview of space meteorology

Space weather is a new interdisciplinary subject, which has a wide range of applications, such as solar flares, coronal mass ejections, solar particle events and interplanetary shock waves. Space weather is a brand-new concept. Violent activities on the sun, such as flare and solar mass ejection, have brought serious influence and harm to the magnetosphere, ionosphere and upper atmosphere, satellite operation and safety, and human health. People call this short-time scale change caused by solar activity space weather.

Compared with the ground weather, space weather occurs more than 30 kilometers away from the ground. The physical parameters involved in space weather are quite different from atmospheric weather.

Space meteorology is the integration of space weather (state or event) monitoring, research, modeling, forecasting, effect, information transmission and processing, influence on human activities, development and utilization of space weather and services. It is a high degree of integration and intersection of various disciplines (solar physics, space physics, etc.). ) and various technologies (information technology, computer technology, etc. The basic scientific goal of space meteorology is to regard the solar atmosphere, interplanetary and terrestrial magnetosphere, ionosphere and upper atmosphere as an organic system, configure the monitoring system on the ground and space according to the causal chain relationship of space disastrous weather events, and understand the changing law of space disastrous weather processes.

The application goal of space meteorology is to reduce and avoid the expensive losses caused by space disastrous weather to high-tech systems, and to provide regional and global background and time-varying environmental models for aerospace, communication, national defense and other departments; Provide space weather forecast, effect forecast and decision-making basis for important space and ground activities; Provide basis for effect analysis and protective measures; Explore possible ways to develop and utilize space resources and artificially control space weather, and formulate relevant space policies.

Obviously, the development and establishment of space meteorology and the establishment of a system that can independently monitor, study and forecast space weather changes are not only challenges to nature, but also related to increasing the comprehensive strength of the country. It is a new cross-century discipline with important foundation, strategy and foresight.