Rossby Waves on the Sun Could Aid in Space Weather Prediction

Rossby Waves on the Sun Could Aid in Space Weather Prediction

To predict weather on a planet, we look at Rossby waves, large movement patterns in the atmosphere, like the jet stream. Just as on Earth, the conditions on the sun are constantly changing. This is why scientists were excited to discover Rossby waves on the sun. On the sun, the waves are driven by magnetic currents below the surface. Monitoring these waves and the disturbances they generate could help us make better long-term space weather predictions. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Genna Duberstein Music: Grand Design by Michael Conn This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12550 If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/NASAExplorer Or subscribe to NASA’s Goddard Shorts HD Podcast: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/iTunes/f0004_index.htmlFollow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center  · Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NASA.GSFC · Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddard · Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/ · Instagram http://www.instagram.com/nasagoddard/ · Google+ http://plus.google.com/+NASAGoddard/posts