Home▸Space & Astronomy▸Watching the Sun: Space Weather Monitoring

🛰️ Watching the Sun: Space Weather Monitoring

An interactive 3D model of solar wind meeting Earth's magnetosphere — tune solar wind speed and the interplanetary magnetic field, launch a coronal mass ejection, and watch the Kp index, Dst index, and grid/satellite risk levels respond in real time.

Space & Astronomy3DAdvanced60 FPS💨 Air & Wind 🌍 Earth ⚡ Plasma

Solar wind streams past Earth and either gets deflected around the magnetosphere or, when the interplanetary magnetic field points south, reconnects and funnels particles into the polar atmosphere — the physical process behind the Kp and Dst indices that grid operators and satellite controllers watch.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

The magnetosphere's teardrop shield compresses under wind pressure and opens to reconnection when Bz turns negative, driving the Kp storm index, the Dst ring-current index, and downstream risk to power grids and satellites.

🎮 How to Use

Adjust solar wind speed and IMF Bz to see the shield compress and aurora brighten, launch a simulated CME to watch a shock pulse spike the storm indices, and switch to the grid/satellite view for a plain-language risk read-out.

💡 Did You Know?

NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center issues real storm watches from data gathered roughly one hour before impact by spacecraft parked at the L1 Lagrange point, giving grid operators just enough time to reconfigure networks.

⚙ Under the hood

solar windmagnetospherecoronal mass ejectionKp indexDst indexspace weatherThree.js

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install