Our Sun is a really active star. Solar flares and coronal mass ejections launch energy and particles that
change the space around Earth—what we call “Space Weather”. Effects range from satellite glitches and radio
interference to auroras and, in big storms, power grid impacts. Understanding this helps us protect everyday tech.
Space might be mostly empty, but the solar wind and Earth’s upper atmosphere interact in fascinating ways—
from the ionosphere impacting radio to the global electromagnetic “drum” known as the Schumann Resonance.
Schumann Resonance — live from Tomsk (via image proxy)
Overview (24-hour spectrogram): intensity of global ELF “cavity” resonance.
Brighter bands near ~7.8, 14, 20, 26, 33 Hz are the fundamental and harmonics.
More brightness ⇒ stronger energy at that frequency/time.
Frequencies vs. local time (TLDV=UTC+7): shows where the fundamental and harmonics sit.
Small drifts are normal with day-night ionospheric changes.
Amplitudes vs. local time: how strong each mode is (higher = louder).
Storms and day-night ionospheric changes can boost or dampen amplitudes.
Quality factors (Q): higher Q = sharper, more stable resonance peaks;
lower Q = broader peaks from losses/turbulence in the cavity.
Ionosphere critical frequencies: background ionospheric state that shapes the Earth-ionosphere
waveguide where Schumann modes live.
Critical frequencies (no sporadic layers): same idea, removing short-lived E-layer anomalies to
show the baseline.
Ionosphere heights: estimated effective heights; day-night heating/cooling shifts these,
nudging resonance behavior.
