Last Updated on May 23, 2026 by Staff
For a time people who study the Earth thought the sun did not have a big effect on our planet’s weather. The sun goes through a cycle every 11 years. This cycle makes the sun a little bit brighter or dimmer. But the change is really small so it only affects the Earth’s temperature by a bit. Because of this, people who make models of the Earth’s climate usually do not think the sun’s activity is very important.
A new study that was published in Geophysical Research Letters is saying that this might not be true. Some researchers found out that big geomagnetic storms, which are like magnetic disturbances caused by the sun, can actually have a big effect on the Earth’s weather. These storms can make the weather change fast and in big ways.
The people who did the study think that bursts of energy from the sun might be affecting the Earth’s atmosphere a lot more than people thought before.
Magnetic Storms
When the sun has an eruption it sends a lot of charged particles towards the Earth. When these particles hit the Earth’s field they make the upper atmosphere get all upset and sometimes they even make pretty lights in the sky near the poles.
To see if these storms also affect the weather a researcher named J. Raeder looked at weather records and data about geomagnetic storms from 1950 to 2017. He compared what was happening with the temperature, air pressure, rain, wind and sunlight during times when there were geomagnetic storms.
What he found was really surprising. Whenever there were geomagnetic storms the weather would get really weird in North America. In some places it would get really cold. In other places it would get warmer or the wind would change or it would rain.
These changes in the weather would often last for days and they were a lot bigger than what people would expect from the normal solar cycle.
Winter Effects
The study found that the biggest effects happened during the winter. The people who did the study think this might have something to do with the vortex, which is like a big circle of cold air that is high above the Arctic.
When geomagnetic storms happen they put energy into the Earth’s atmosphere and this energy messes with the polar vortex. Then the disturbance moves down through the atmosphere. Eventually affects the weather on the ground.
This is called “down coupling”. It means that the changes in the weather do not start on the ground but high up in the atmosphere and then they move down.
The researchers also looked at some ideas that people had about why the weather might be changing. Some people thought it might be because of rays or energetic particles that were coming into the atmosphere. The new data did not support these ideas.
Instead the study found a connection between geomagnetic storms and the way the atmosphere circulates.
Weather Patterns
One of the things the study found was how fast the weather would change after a big solar storm. The researchers saw that the temperature, wind, air pressure and rain patterns could all change quickly sometimes in just a few days.
In the winter some parts of the United States would get really cold after a storm while other parts would get warmer. In the summer some of these patterns would happen the way around.
The changes in the weather would not last forever. They would be big enough to be noticeable even when looking at a lot of old weather records.
The researchers said that these storms can be like a shock to the atmosphere and they can disrupt the normal weather patterns.
The study only looked at North America. Now the researchers want to see if the same thing happens in other parts of the world like Europe, Asia, Africa and so on.
Future Forecasts
This discovery could change the way people predict the weather and the climate. If more studies confirm that solar storms are affecting the weather then meteorologists might start including information about space weather in their forecasts.
For example if there is a big geomagnetic storm coming the forecasters might be able to warn people about cold fronts or big changes in the wind or other disturbances in the atmosphere.
Climate models might also need to be updated. Now most of these models focus on things like greenhouse gases, oceans and what is happening on the surface of the Earth. They do not pay attention to what is happening with the sun.
This research suggests that short-term events in space like solar storms might be more important than people thought.
The scientists are saying that more research is needed to understand what is going on. The study has already opened up a new area of research into how the sun affects the Earth’s atmosphere.
What people used to think was a pretty light show in the sky might actually be changing the weather on the ground. Solar storms might be a lot more important to the Earth’s climate than anyone thought before.