This picture shows material from the Sun coming towards the Earth. It is the Sun's magnetic field carried in this material that causes magnetic storms.
NASA
Geomagnetic Storms
Have you ever been in a storm here on Earth? Sometimes during storms we are familiar with, it rains, it lightnings and it gets really windy. There are other storms that happen too. They are called geomagnetic storms. "Geo" means the storms affect the Earth and "magnetic" means that they are magnetic storms (instead of rain or thunderstorms).
Basically, the Sun's magnetic field causes storms in our magnetic field. We need to understand these storms because sometimes they can have a bad effect on life here on Earth. Geomagnetic storms can affect radio communication, satellite drag, auroral activity and even the safety of astronauts in Earth orbit.
You might also be interested in:
The Earth has a magnetic field with north and south poles. The magnetic field of the Earth is surrounded by the magnetosphere. The magnetosphere keeps most of the particles from the sun, carried in solar
...more
For a planet to be affected by a blob of material being ejected by the sun, the planet must be in the path of the blob, as shown in this picture. The Earth and its magnetosphere are shown in the bottom
...more
This picture shows a series of images of the auroral oval as it expands over the an hour's time because of a storm on the Sun. This is an animation of the auroral oval expanding.
...more
A coronal mass ejection (CME) happened on the Sun last month. The material that was thrown out from this explosion passed the ACE spacecraft. ACE measured some exciting things as the CME material passed
...more
Did you know that the Sun can affect the Earth? It can! During a time called solar maximum, the Sun is really active. That means it spits out lots of material. Some of it passes the Earth and can cause
...more
Pipelines for transporting oil, natural gas, and water are often made of conducting materials like steel. Very long pipelines (thousands of kilometers/miles) are used to transport oil and gas at high latitudes,
...more
Certain animal species on Earth (such as the homing pigeon) are able to detect Earth's magnetic field and use it for navigational purposes. Homing pigeons have been known to reach home by flying over 1,6
...more
