Tag Archives: weather

In an unexpected twist, two Earth-based weather satellites, Himawari-8 and Himawari-9, have provided invaluable data on Venus, a revelation that could significantly enhance our understanding of the planet’s mysterious atmosphere. Initially designed to monitor Earth’s weather patterns, these satellites, operated by Japan, have instead delivered one of the longest multiband infrared records of Venus ever recorded. This accidental discovery has …

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Our first meeting was a bit awkward. One of us is an archaeologist who studies how past peoples interacted with their environments. Two of us are geophysicists who investigate interactions between solar activity and Earth’s magnetic field. When we first …

TRACERS, short for Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, will study a process known as magnetic reconnection. As particles in the solar wind head out into the Solar System at up to 1 million mph, they bring along pieces of the Sun’s magnetic field. When the solar wind reaches our neighborhood, it begins interacting with Earth’s magnetic field. The …

In a serendipitous turn of events, scientists have discovered that Japan’s Himawari-8 and Himawari-9 weather satellites, designed to monitor storms and climate patterns here on Earth, have also been quietly collecting valuable data on Venus for nearly a decade. Although meteorological satellites orbit Earth and scan the skies around it, their imaging range extends into space, allowing them to occasionally …

NASA’s TRACERS mission blasted off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base on Wednesday (July 23), after a 24-hour delay caused by airspace concerns. TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) is composed of twin satellites that will study how surges in the solar wind trigger magnetic reconnection in Earth‘s magnetosphere; such reconnection leads to charged particles being funneled down …

Stop me if you’ve heard this song and dance before, but Scottie Scheffler has a commanding lead going into Sunday. What’s unfamiliar, though, is that Scheffler is leading after 54 holes of The Open Championship at Royal Portrush. Historically, the top-ranked golfer in the world has struggled whenever he’s had to travel across the pond for The Open (at least …

Over the next few weeks Michigan will be positioned in the severe thunderstorm zone of the current upper-air pattern. Here’s what that means for us here in Michigan. First, before we look at the expected weather pattern let’s step back and just look at the time of year. We are in July which is the hottest time of the year …

A new mission set to blast off for low-Earth orbit will study magnetic storms around the Earth and learn more about how they affect our atmosphere and satellites. NASA’s Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, or TRACERS for short, mission represents a pair of satellites that will fly in a sun-synchronous orbit — meaning they are always over the …

Our first meeting was a bit awkward. One of us is an archaeologist who studies how past peoples interacted with their environments. Two of us are geophysicists who investigate interactions between solar activity and Earth’s magnetic field. When we first got together, we wondered whether our unconventional project, linking space weather and human behavior, could actually bridge such a vast …

After a two-week stretch of dominance by Shane van Gisbergen on road and street courses, it’s back to the ovals for the NASCAR Cup Series. Dover Motor Speedway will begin three consecutive races with exclusively left turns — the tracks where van Gisbergen has struggled as a Cup rookie. The three-time Supercars champion has three victories in 2025 at Sonoma, …