Space plasma influences on the Earth's atmosphere

Abstract

While the role of space plasma in forming the Earth's aurora and modifying the circulation of the upper atmosphere is well established, possible connections with the atmosphere at lower altitudes remain the subject of some controversy. Various nonlinear mechanisms have been proposed that could explain why such a small external forcing could have a relatively large effect. To enable us to assess future anthropogenic climate change, a much more complete understanding of all potentially relevant natural processes is essential. In this paper, many of the key processes are discussed with a view to developing a low-cost microsatellite mission to investigate them.