We're All Connected

Space weather in the upper reaches of the atmosphere is affected by weather conditions down here on Earth, a new study suggests.

Using a combination of satellite imagery and computer simulations, researchers found that tides of air created by intense thunderstorms over South America, Africa and Southeast Asia are altering the structure of the ionosphere, the topmost layers of the atmosphere where space weather occurs.

The finding, detailed in the Aug. 11 issue of Geophysical Research Letters, is surprising because scientists didn't think the ionosphere and the troposphere—the lower part of the atmosphere where terrestrial weather happens—affected one another.

"This discovery will help improve forecasts of turbulence in the ionosphere, which can disrupt radio transmissions and the reception of signals from the Global Positioning Satellite," said study leader Thomas Immel of the University of California, Berkeley.
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