Our Contribution
Living with Our Sun
We’ve been lucky. Behind the beauty and wonder of our Sun lies the potential for massive, violent forces to create giant eruptions, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), that blast energy, light, and particles into space, creating so-called geospace storms. And while our world is a relatively small target, a direct hit from a CME would profoundly impact our power grids, satellite systems, air travel, and communications—damaging our economic infrastructure and threatening national security. APL is a leader in space weather science, observations, and modeling—particularly in understanding the drivers of solar activity, the role Earth’s magnetosphere plays in protecting us, and the response of the upper atmosphere to solar variability. APL has built and operates multiple space weather missions for NASA and plays critical roles in the creation, construction, and operation of numerous instruments that enhance our understanding of space weather in a broader context. APL also prominently and actively fosters collaboration to develop physics-based and machine-learning models that establish the foundation for predicting and visualizing space weather events, conducts gap analyses, hosts the SEASONS conference on space weather, and leads tabletop exercises involving leaders from government and academia—further contributing to humankind’s preparedness to deal with a significant space weather impacting Earth.
