On May 10-11, 2024, we experienced one of the strongest geomagnetic storms and auroral outbursts in the last 25 years. In this episode, I thought it would be fun to summarise the key points of this excellent article by Christian Harris, to see how the storm stacks up against the other main contender this century.

This month on the podcast, I talk about a special mission that was launched to study the sun and space weather. It's called the Parker Solar Probe, and it continues to send back fascinating data from inside the solar corona. Listen to learn all about it! I also give next week's space weather forecast.

To learn more about the Parker Solar Probe and view it in 3D: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/parker-solar-probe/

In this episode I break down by latitude what Kp and other data to watch for when going aurora chasing in the Northern Hemisphere. It can seem an endless sea of confusing data values relating to the aurora, but you can quickly learn what to look for to decide whether the aurora might be visible from your location. spaceweatherlive.com is a great site to check with all the info you need in a user-friendly view.

The solar system is huge, and it turns out that defining where it ends is tricky! Depending on the definition we use, we can come up with wildly different estimates for its size. Listen to the show for an exploration of this fascinating topic! You'll also hear next week's space weather forecast, with some farside sunspots to keep an eye on.

Today, I give an overview of the Earth's magnetic field. How is it formed and what does it do? Listen to find out! I also give the space weather forecast, in which the Sun may finally be waking from a long sleep!

The sun clearly produces enormous amounts of light and heat, which sustain life on our planet. How does it do this? Is it a big ball of fire in space? I answer that and more in this episode. Additionally, I give the space weather forecast, with a chance for activity this weekend and next week.

On October 14, the annular solar eclipse I described in the last episode came and went. Hopefully you got to see it! Now, I'll be describing how solar eclipses affect space weather, and how they've been used to learn more about the sun. Also, I include the space weather forecast. The sun is surprisingly quiet this week!

In this show, learn what solar eclipses are and how to see two amazing upcoming ones! Here are the links to the useful pages I mention:

October 14, 2023: timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2023-october-14

April 8, 2024: timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2024-april-8

Eclipse day weather: eclipsophile.com