Space Storms in the Atmosphere and on the Ground

Abstract

Space storm effects reach all the way through the atmosphere to the ground. In the Sun– Earth system the storms take place in the weather time scales, lasting maximally a few days from the release of the CME to the time when the ICME has passed the Earth. On the other hand, the effects of solar proton events can last in the middle atmosphere months and thus become coupled to the atmospheric climate cycles. This is further amplified through the solar cycle variability both in the total solar irradiance and at EUV wavelengths. To have any intelligent discussion of the climate issues would require extensive treatment of middle atmospheric ion and neutral chemistry and atmospheric circulation patterns, and lead us too far from the topic of this book. Therefore we limit our discussion to a short description of some immediate signatures of space storms in the middle atmosphere.