Hello, Andy Breen here. I want to tell you about the the connections between the Sun and the Earth. So let's start at the beginning...

When I was young, I saw the northern lights, which are one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen.

I wanted to find out more about these strange lights, and now as a job I measure the solar wind speed in the Arctic!

WHAT'S THE CONNECTION?

Well, the Sun's wind can cause very fast particles to enter the Earth's atmosphere, making it glow in many different colours, and these are the northern lights, otherwise known as the aurora. Aurora was the Roman godess of the dawn.

SO WHAT IS MY PART IN ALL THIS? By making measurements of the solar wind, I can predict when we shall see the northern lights, but I need to travel to the Arctic to do this! If the aurorae were just pretty patterns in the sky, you might not think that this is very important! However, aurorae can cause some problems. Follow these links to find out what and how. Do the aurorae affect us? What is space weather? What has twinkling got to do with it? Tracking the space storms. Can you see aurorae at the south pole?

To find out more about me, have a look in the Hot Spots.