Solar flares strongly influence the local space weather of the Earth.
Lopez's main area of research deals with magnetospheric physics and space weather.
The new knowledge should help scientists better understand such "space weather."
In effect, space weather is a product of our ego, as well as a check against it.
For centuries, people have noticed the aurora, which is caused by space weather, but did not understand it.
From these and other fundamental discoveries, research into space weather has grown exponentially.
However, a linkage between space weather and the climate has not been demonstrated conclusively.
The observation of space weather is done both for scientific research and for applications.
A summary of the broad technical capabilities in space weather that are available from the association can be found on their web site.
What is space weather, and why should we care?