Solar flares and their
effects on Earth

Solar flares have been known for many years to have an impact on the Earth’s environment. Their effects are wide-ranging, from disruption of communications to producing spectacular aurorae. This talk will describe our latest understanding of solar flares, particularly in light of what we have learned from the two current space missions Hinode and STEREO. The talk will describe the work that is being done to be able to predict flare and coronal mass ejections accurately, leading to reliable forecasts of so-called “space weather”.

Back to conference programme

 

About Louise Harra

Louise Harra is a professor of solar physics at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory of University College London. She obtained her PhD in solar physics from Queen’s University Belfast. Her main areas of research are solar flares, coronal mass ejections and active region heating. From 1993 to 1995 she worked in Japan on the Yohkoh solar mission. She is the principal investigator for the Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer instrument on the joint Japanese–US–UK space mission Hinode which was launched in September 2006.

Louise Harra’s home page