Meet Krista Hammond - Space Weather expert.

Meet Space Weather expert Krista Hammond who has been forecasting
with the Met Office for 16 years. Kirsta is an operational Space
Weather Meteorologist as well as a senior Account Manager for
Space Weather.


As we enter into a solar maximum, Space Weather activity has been
hitting the headlines, not only because of the frequency of the
spectacular display of the aurora borealis but because there has
been a forecast for one of the largest geomagnetic storms to have
hit the earth for 20 year. This level of storm is powerful enough
to knock out power grids, networks, navigation and more.


The scale of space weather is simple mind blowing. Krista talks
about the difference between solar flare, solar radiation storms
and coronal mass ejections (CME’s). She explains the remarkable
speed that each can travel at and how much warning we might
potentially have before they hit the Earth. A CME is in a whole
league to its own and can affect not just a local region but an
entire hemisphere.


Krista tells us that unlike modern forecasting for the weather on
Earth, there is very limited ways to understand what’s happening
in the sun. The main way to do this is to use satellites which
look at the sun in different wavelengths and well as looking at
the sun’s magnetic fields.


We learn why we need to know what a ‘Lagrange points’ is and why
a European Space Agency mission called VIGIL could revolutionise
space weather forecasting.


Listen on to find out why Krista loves summer, Noctilucent clouds
and why even though she is a space weather forecaster she has
never seen the Northern Lights!


If you would like to contact Krista she is on LinkedIn - Krista
Hammond - Space Weather.


You can follow the podcast on ‘X’ we are @4loveofweather and on
Instagram @fortheloveofweather.


Thanks so much for listening and supporting the podcast, and we
hope you leave this episode loving the weather just a little bit
more.