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What tools are available for space-weather enthusiasts? (mander.xyz)
submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I just learned about hobby and read through some discussions about space weather in the spaceweatherlive forum.

It is not clear to me from those discussions where the data they discuss is coming from.

Are there tools that one can have at home to track space weather events? Through hobby-grade telescopes can one observe solar activity? Are diagnostic radio signals detectable with an SDR? Can an X-ray/gamma burst produce a strong enough diagnostic signal to detect with a radiation detector? Or are there some other type of detectors?

Is the main source of data used for interpreting solar activity patterns as a hobby the data that can be found here: https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/ ?

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[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

On that site, on the main dashboard, click the help links for explanations on each reading. For solar satellites you can see them at the bottom of the Solar activity panel at the top. You don't need any special equipment. NOAA, NASA, etc already has you covered as this stuff affects GPS, the energy grid and a million other things so they have lots of eyes on it. The satellites are usually the first to tip people off with good activity. It takes a while to learn to read it, so don't worry! I'll see if I can dig up the good forum posts that have some good explanations in a bit. The community there is amazing and super knowledgeable. If you download their app you can get alerts!

[-] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

The info and help icons pack a lot of info in. I used to have to pay attention to this stuff for work lol.

this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2025
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Space Weather

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Welcome to Space Weather

Space weather is a branch of space physics and aeronomy, or heliophysics, concerned with the varying conditions within the Solar System and its heliosphere. This includes the effects of the solar wind, especially on the Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere. Though physically distinct, space weather is analogous to the terrestrial weather of Earth's atmosphere (troposphere and stratosphere). The term "space weather" was first used in the 1950s and popularized in the 1990s. Later, it prompted research into "space climate", the large-scale and long-term patterns of space weather.

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