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18 - Solar Variability

Causes, Current Understanding, Prospects for the Future

from Part V - Magnetic Fields beyond the Earth and beyond Today

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2019

By
André Balogh
Edited by
Mioara Mandea ,
Monika Korte ,
Andrew Yau  and
Eduard Petrovsky
Mioara Mandea
Affiliation:
Centre National d'études Spatiales, France
Monika Korte
Affiliation:
GeoforschungsZentrum, Helmholtz-Zentrum, Potsdam
Andrew Yau
Affiliation:
University of Calgary
Eduard Petrovsky
Affiliation:
Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague
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Summary

Solar variability is the origin of space weather. Variations in the rate and kind of energetic output from the Sun cause the variability in the Earth’s space environment, generally termed space weather. The physics of the causes and phenomenology of the evolving solar energetic output has become a major topic of observational and theoretical research. The major components of solar variability are reviewed, together with what are understood to be outstanding questions. Understanding the origin of solar wind streams and their dependence on solar conditions contributes to the predictability of interplanetary processes that affect the Earth’s space environment and are primary drivers of space weather phenomena. The phenomenology of space weather effects resulting from variable solar and interplanetary conditions is well documented, with increasing details uncovered, but the causal processes are less so, as evidenced by the limits of predictability of space weather drivers. Future emphasis must be on improving models, both by the details and resolution that can be achieved and a clearer quantitative understanding of causal relationships, against a background of the essentially stochastic nature of all solar and interplanetary phenomena.

Keywords

Solar variabilitysolar windspace weatherEarth’s space environment
Type
Chapter
Information
Geomagnetism, Aeronomy and Space Weather
A Journey from the Earth's Core to the Sun
 , pp. 286 - 311
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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