Jason,

Although I'm not sure when the term "space weather" was born, I can explain why we use that term in our field. Just as the term "weather" describes changing environmental conditions here on Earth, space weather describes the changing environmental conditions in outer space. The environment in space consists of plasma that constantly blows out from the Sun, called the solar wind, which hits the Earth and other planets in our solar system. One phenomenon affecting space weather are Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) which interact with the Earth's magnetic field, triggering what we call "geomagnetic storms". CMEs and solar flares accelerate solar energetic particles toward the Earth (if they are pointed towards us), and can damage electronics onboard spacecraft and threaten the life of astronauts. Since these solar storms can affect our lives here on Earth, it is important to study the space environment and try to predict when storms occur, just like we do here on Earth when we study hurricanes, tornados, etc.

Hope this answers part of your question!

Holly

Hi! "Space weather" has always been around, but until pretty recently, it really didn't impact us here on Earth. This is because the Earth's magnetic field acts like a protective shield against most of the energized plasma coming at us during a solar storm. In fact, the main impact on the Earth has historically been the Northern Lights, when protons and electrons from the Sun travel down the open magnetic field lines at the poles, see http://www.windows.ucar.e...osphere/aurora.html. However, 50 years ago we became a space-faring planet! And now that we have satellites in space, as well as satellite technology here on Earth, we are far more aware of the Sun's activity. This is because the solar storms can buffet the Earth's magnetic field in a way that sometimes leaves satellites outside the shield, and they can subsequently fail. Thus, a good coronal mass ejection at the Sun might knock out a satellite, and your cell phone won't work! Since such storms happen sporadically at the Sun, it is very much like weather here on Earth -- and I guess that is why "space weather" was the logical name. We hope that as we understand what drives the storms, we can get better at predicting it. Odds are, in the future there will be Space Weather reports so that you know whether today is a good day to fly to the moon or not! cheers, Sarah

Those of us who study the near-earth environment often find ourselves as not really astronomers (too close) and not really earth scientists (too far). We use the term "space physics" to emphasize that we study the physics of the environment quantitatively. But "physics" can be a scarey term so we coined the term "space weather" to emphasize that it is in fact quite variable and that it can do us harm, so we should not only study it for the sake of understanding, but also MONITOR it routinely to protect humans and equipment in space.