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(Narrator) It's hard to imagine weather being more than rain on our weekend or ice on our
roads. But space weather can affect the globe especially in the way we
communicate and power our world. Space weather is the environmental conditions
outside of our planet. Originating from the massively energetic
output of the Sun.
(Sibeck) The solar wind is primarily comprised of protons and
electrons. They're streaming outward from the Sun at speeds of up to a million
miles an hour. And they are constantly bombarding the Earth's magnetic field.
(Narrator) Satellites have been launched to study solar wind, solar flares, coronal mass
ejections and other behaviors of the Sun.
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These phenomena impact our atmosphere sometimes with devastating force.
(Sibeck) So space weather includes power outages in high latitude power grids, includes
destruction of spacecraft, includes radiation that can harm astronauts in space.
(Narrator) With any weather prediction is the goal. These missions will all add to the
understanding of what it means to truly live with a star.
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