Baker seminar

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Friday, May 26, 2006, 10:30-11:30 AM Aerospace Engineering department 1235 Howe Hall ABSTRACT “Space Weather and Its Effects on Human Technology” Several hundred satellites are in orbit around the Earth, including both low Earth orbits (~300-1500 km) and high Earth orbits (~35,000 km altitude and above). These satellites are now routinely used for communications, navigation, surveillance, and tropospheric weather tracking. There also are a host of important scientific spacecraft operating within the near-Earth region and elsewhere in the solar system. In these and virtually all other human technological systems, miniaturized electronic components that require very little power are increasingly being used, which makes them vulnerable to external disturbances. The net effect is that space weather can have detrimental effects on both civilian and military satellite systems and other technologies. Space weather can affect surveillance spacecraft, the tracking and lifetimes of orbiting satellites, spacecraft charging levels, and numerous other technological systems and human activities. One of the more important impacts of space weather involves civil and military communications via geostationary satellite links. In this presentation, I will review space weather mechanisms and impacts on satellite systems. I will particularly focus on the recent “Halloween” storm of 2003 and other such large solar storms to illustrate several of these space weather impacts. Daniel N. Baker, Ph.D. Director, Laboratory for Atmospheric & Space Physics Professor, Astrophysical & Planetary Sciences University of Colorado Boulder, CO Coffee and casual discussion with the speaker following the seminar