Infographic: Solar winds impact Earth and interact with the ionosphere
Infographic: Solar winds impact Earth and interact with the ionosphere
When electrically charged solar wind particles collide with Earth's ionosphere, they alter it. The ionosphere becomes highly ionised, meaning gas atoms (or molecules) are split into electrons and ions. This disrupts radio signals travelling from satellites to Earth. Navigation signals, in particular, can be so severely affected that precise positioning on land and at sea becomes temporarily impossible.
