Weather Explainers

Weather Words: Solar Wind

This segment originally appeared in today's edition of the Morning Brief newsletter. Sign up here to get weekday updates from The Weather Channel and our meteorologists.

I’m sure you have felt a cool breeze on your face or even a powerful wind gust that nearly knocks you off your feet. But how about winds that travel up to one million miles per hour? Yes, the sun can create winds that only the cosmos could understand. These wind events are called solar winds and are a key component of space weather.

Solar winds are electrically charged particles emitted from the sun that are mostly made up of protons and electrons. The sun is always generating these solar winds, however, they are made up of varying speeds and density.

The Northern Lights dance above romantic heart shaped rocks at Uttakleiv beach in Norway on April 5, 2024.
(Juan Maria Coy Vergara/Getty )

As the sun’s solar winds race through space, they interact with the different planets. Earth’s magnetosphere is very strong, therefore, deflecting much of the solar wind. However, some of the particles will sneak through and travel toward the poles, where we see the brilliant lights of the aurora borealis light up the night sky.

However, if the solar wind is too strong, it can impact Earth’s power grid, causing temporary blackouts.

Jennifer Gray is a weather and climate writer for weather.com. She has been covering some of the world's biggest weather and climate stories for the last two decades.

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