Simon King
Appearances
Global News Podcast
EU retaliates as Trump tariffs expand globally
In its very simple definition, it refers to the changing environmental conditions on Earth created by solar activity. Now, the beautiful side of space weather is one that we'll all be familiar with, and that's the Northern Lights or the Aurora Borealis. But space weather is actually also really important for security because we can get these geomagnetic storms that can impact spacecraft.
Global News Podcast
EU retaliates as Trump tariffs expand globally
It can interrupt with our satellites. And how much do we rely on now on our smartphones? And a big geomagnetic storm can actually wipe all that out.
Global News Podcast
Ukraine accepts 30-day ceasefire
So space weather is a really interesting topic. In its very simple definition, it refers to the changing environmental conditions on Earth and our atmosphere created by solar activity. So we know that the sun spurts out lots of plasma and energy, radiation, geomagnetic winds. They're constantly coming out of the sun.
Global News Podcast
Ukraine accepts 30-day ceasefire
And sometimes, like volcanic eruptions, we can get coronal mass ejections, which basically push out you know large quantities of plasma and radiation and then that interacts with our atmosphere and it can give us impacts on Earth.
Global News Podcast
Ukraine accepts 30-day ceasefire
Now the beautiful side of space weather is one that we'll all be familiar with and that's the northern lights or the aurora borealis that is basically these charged particles and the energy from the sun interacting with oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere to give us those beautiful colours.
Global News Podcast
Ukraine accepts 30-day ceasefire
But space weather is actually also really important on a global scale for security because it's a big hazard. We can get these geomagnetic storms that can impact spacecraft. So it can cut out the electrics. It can give radiation poisoning to astronauts who might be in a space station. It can interrupt with our satellites.
Global News Podcast
Ukraine accepts 30-day ceasefire
And that can obviously have big impacts to global trade, the economy, banking. You know, how much do we rely on now on our smartphones and electronics, the Internet to do everything? You know, everything is controlled by that. And a big geomagnetic storm can actually wipe all that out. So we're talking about very severe consequences because of space weather.
Global News Podcast
Ukraine accepts 30-day ceasefire
And that's why it's also on the National Risk Register, which is why the government is particularly concerned about it. And that's why we monitor the sun 24-7 to kind of notice these and spot these events as they're happening. So, yeah, it's really important.
Global News Podcast
Ukraine accepts 30-day ceasefire
It is. So the sun goes through an 11-year cycle from maximum temperature. to minimum activity. And 2024, 2025, we are now in a solar maximum. And that basically means that we know there are a lot of sunspots on the surface of the sun. And these sunspots are like volcanic eruptions, and they spurt out extra energy out into space.
Global News Podcast
Ukraine accepts 30-day ceasefire
And if they're directed towards the Earth, that's where we can get the aurora and these geomagnetic storms. So We're in the maximum period at the minute, which is why actually throughout 2024 we saw some incredible aurora.
Global News Podcast
Ukraine accepts 30-day ceasefire
That's right. So, well, because that's essentially because we need clear skies most of the time, don't we, to see things like meteor showers or we've got a lunar eclipse coming up in March, also a partial solar eclipse coming up. So we're keeping a close eye on those as well, because, of course. they're no good if you can't see them. So we need to know about the cloud cover.
Global News Podcast
Ukraine accepts 30-day ceasefire
We want to know about the weather forecast. So it falls to us at the BBC Weather Centre to be kind of the people in charge of kind of communicating these events. So, yeah, it's certainly interesting throughout March. Of course, we've got the equinox coming up as well. So there are a lot of celestial things that are going on, which we hopefully can tell you more about.
Global News Podcast
Putin visits Kursk after Russian advances - Kremlin
In its very simple definition, it refers to the changing environmental conditions on Earth created by solar activity. Now, the beautiful side of space weather is one that we'll all be familiar with, and that's the Northern Lights or the Aurora Borealis. But space weather is actually also... really important for security because we can get these geomagnetic storms that can impact spacecraft.
Global News Podcast
Putin visits Kursk after Russian advances - Kremlin
It can interrupt with our satellites. And how much do we rely on now on our smartphones? And a big geomagnetic storm can actually wipe all that out.