What isSpace Weather?!
MANGA: HAYANON+SCIENCE MANGA STUDIOSUPERVISORS: KAZUO SHIOKAWA,YOSHIZUMI MIYOSHI,AND RYUHO KATAOKAIs it true that space has weather? the Sun, which we thought was always
the same, is actually changing at a dizzying pace, sometimes going quiet
and other times exploding. When the "solar wind," which is made ofplasma emitted from the Sun, causes a "magnetic storm" on the Earth,electrical facilities on the ground may break down or suﬀer serious
damage. In order to know this in advance and prevent damage, researchand eﬀorts in "space weather forecasting," in which solar activity isobserved to predict upcoming phenomena, are spreading around theworld. Let's learn about "space weather" with MIRUBO, MOL, and theresearchers (SENSEI) in this MANGA!

What isis
WhatSpace Weather?!
Weather!?
SpaceMOL

She is an elementary school
student who loves science.
She's a person who getscarried away easily.

Dr. RYUHO KATAOKA
Associate Professor,
National Institute of Polar Research
Space and upper Atmospheric Sciences Grouphttps://polaris.nipr.ac.jp/~spuas/about/indexe.html

MIRUBOHe is a state-of-the-art
dog-shaped robot.
He loves grilled meat.

Dr. YOSHIZUMI MIYOSHI
Professor,
Nagoya University
Institute for Space‒Earth Environmental ResearchCenter for Integrated Data ScienceI’ m MOL,an elementary
school student
who lovesscience.

I’ m MIRUBO.
a robotwith thetechnologyof the future.

This isan institute!
I'm here today
to FIND
an interesting
story.

He suddenly
stoppedmoving!

OhYou cometo us!
sensei!!

Hmm?
Ugh!
What's wrong
with you?
MIRUBO?

MIRUBO!!

As I predicted,
he hada breakdown.

This is probably
due tomagnetic storm.

Dr. RYUHO KATAOKA senseiIt's in the news now,and everyone isconfused about it.

magneticstorm?
WHat’s that?

power and computers
have been
affected by it.

The sun isemitting particles ofsuch high energythat they are
spreading out
into the spacearound it.

The solar windis causinga magnetic storm.

And it'sraining downon our planet
all the time. ......

As you know,
the sun isan active starwith tremendous
energy!

Earth's magnetic field lines
are being swept backby the solar wind.

From our eyes,
the sun looks
the same anytime
we look at it.
However,
it is notconstant.

Sometimes
when solar activity isparticularly high,it can blow in
as a strong storm.

I’ve justlearned
this ismagneticstorm!

It is even explosive
when viewed throughUV and X-rays.

-�--�-

In 1989,
an accident occurredin Canadathat shut down
the power grid.
It was pretty big,and it was going toaffect the whole society.

Rough geomagnetic field
causes abnormal
electric currentson the ground.
And that can destroy
power Gridand cause machineryto malfunction.

That's what
got me too.

So,
the great explosionof the sun
has come tocause great damage
to our society.

Oh?
Why?

This kind of damage
did not happen
50 or 100 years ago.

This is because
the power gridand computer equipmen
t did not exist
in that period
as it does today.

Ah, yes!

I see!
I wasn'teven born yetat that time.

In particular,
the event of "damage to satellites" isa "space disaster" that has occurred
over the past few years to decades
as humans have expanded
into space!

As humans travelto the moon and Marsin the coming years,
it will become
increasingly importantto prevent damage
from such disasters!

In some situations,such as transportationand medical care,disasters can
immediately affecthuman lives.

If we could use the"space weather forecast"to know thata particularly strong
magnetic storm is coming,

just as we know
from the weather forecast
that a windstorm
or storm is coming.

It maylessen the damage,as in,"It's dangerous,
so let's not
go outside for a while."So,how do you
figure out
how and whenmagnetic storms
occur?

The Japanese satellite"Arase"was launched in 2016
to understandhigh-energy particles
flowing to Earth from space.

It continues
to observein the "Van Allen Belt,"a region thatencircles the Earth.

it looks like a donut!

Dr. YOSHIZUMI MIYOSHI SENSEIThe area is full of radiation,
which is normallya very harsh environment
for observation equipment,
BUT IT IS WORKING VERY HARDand sending us data!

Geospace satellite “Arase”

The sun is known
to increase
and decreasein activity
in an 11-year cycle

It will reachits maximumin 2024-2025,
so this isa very active period.

We can observe
the magneticstorms
that arehappeningright now.

Whatmagnetic storms
have occurredin Earth's history
up to the present?

It isvery difficult
to know thisIn the time of
our ancestors,
there wasno equipment
to makeobservations.

That’strue

OhHowever, it was said.
People saw auroras
in places where
they would not normally see themwhen geomagnetic anomalies
occurred. ......

Such records
have been foundin ancient
documents.

People tend to thinkthat research on auroras
and other phenomena issomething that only scienceand engineering people do,
but we are alsocollaboratingwith researchers
in the field ofhistorical record
to find out
what happened and when!

In the old days,
when people saw
the mountains
turning red,
they might have beenscared thinking
it must be a fire...

High-energy particles
blasting out fromthe sun are
spreading throughou
the solar system.

If THE RESEACHERS could
send satellites
not only to Earth
but also to other planets
to observe themat their respective locations

VENUS

Research teams
from aroundthe worldare embarking on
a series ofinvestigations!

JUICE
DEIMOSMARSJUPITERPHOBOSAKATSUKI
THE SUNPSP

EUROPA

navic
QZSS

ARASE

GOES

MMX

GLONASSDSCOVR

Galileo

HINODEGPS

BEIDOUTHE EARTH

MMS
Meteological satellites,
positioning satellites, etc have worked
an important role for the space weather.

ArtemisMERCURYMIO

THE MOON

If they can do this,we will be able to understandmore about the activity of the sun
and the flow of particles,
and they will be able to predict
what kind of winds and storms
will blow in this space.

In the future,
our society will be
more and more vulnerable
to disasters from space,
as we will haveeven more electric power
and information devices!
"Space weather forecasting"must enable"Space disaster prevention"and "Disaster mitigation."

More and morecountries aretackling
this problem!

Discussions on
space weather are
underway at
the United Nations.

Link to UNITED NATIONS Oﬃce for Outer Space Aﬀairs
https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/topics/space-weather.html

Some may thinkthat this is none of
their business...
but many parts ofsociety are affectedby space weather!

Okay,
I got it.

I'll have tokeep an eye
on the space
weather forecasttoo.

I hope that people
who have never heard ofspace weather will learn
about it and think about
how we are living togetherin space,
living with a starcalled Sun.

Phew
that wasa tough one
this time.
I didn't thinka solar explosion
would destroy
my supercomputer.

To avoid
another breakdown
I started watchin
the space weather
forecast daily!

great!

Now
I am
at ease!

I had no idea
thatsolar changes
were happening
all the time.

AndI had't even known
there are probesthat kept
looking at it.
I hope thatas research
progresses,
we will be able
to learn more
aboutspace weather!

ᵵᶆᵿᶒᵅᶑᴾᵿᴾᶑᶎᵿᶁᶃᴾᶕᶃᵿᶒᶆᶃᶐᴾᶄᶍᶐᶃᶁᵿᶑᶒᵝ
MOL: Sensei, what is space
weather forecasting? Does itmean rain and wind in space...!

MOL: How do you know that amagnetic storm is about to hit?
What methods do you use to ﬁndout?

SENSEI: Space weather
forecasting means that weobserve solar activity and solar
wind conditions to predict what
will happen, and thereby predict
and inform you of the eﬀects
on t h e e l e c t r o m a g n e t i cenvironment on the Earth and oncommunication and power
grids....

SENSEI: Observational
instruments are used to observe
solar activity such as solar ﬂares
and coronal mass ejections, andground-based instruments andspace satellites are used toobserve the magnetic ﬁeld andplasma around the Earth. Basedon these observation data,numerical simulations andanalyses are conducted toforecast space weather.

MOL: Is solar activity relevant?
SENSEI: The energy andmaterials emitted from the Sun
create the weather around theSun. You may have heard ofsolar ﬂares or coronal massejections.

MIRUBO: So if we observe andﬁnd changes, we can tell that"the Sun has exploded, and astorm is coming...! That's a bighelp!
SENSEI: We live in an era where
humans are increasingly
expanding into space. People
will need this much more than
before. Space weather
forecasting is useful in a wide
range of applications, such asprotecting the infrastructure thatis essential to modern society,i n c l u d i n g s a t e l l i t ecommunications, GPS, and thepower grid, as well as providing
safety measures for space
navigation and space travel.

MIRUBO: I know what they are!
( M m m m, t hat 's a t oug h one!
Let's sneak out and search for iton my super smartphone...!)SENSEI: The electromagnetic
environment on the Earth can beaﬀected by "plasma" and"magnetic ﬁelds" emitted fromthe Sun. Especially when solar
activity is intense, the eﬀects
are often signiﬁcant.
MOL: By inﬂuence, you meansomething bad happens, right?

SENSEI: Space weather
forecasting also makes it
possible to predict weatherchanges caused by solar
activity.

SENSEI: For example, a strong
magnetic storm can aﬀect
communications equipment andpower facilities, and can alsointerfere with satellite andspacecraft operations.

MOL: So you can tell from thespace weather forecast that amagnetic storm is coming andthat there will be a great aurora
borealis! This could be good forpeople who deﬁnitely want tosee the Northern Lights when
they travel. I would hate to go on
a trip and not be able to seethem...

MIRUBO: That's a big problem! Iwish you'd tell me before thathappens, man!

M I R U B O : I h a v e astate-of-the-art supercomputerin my head, and I don't want it to
fail due to a magnetic storm...
How can I get access to thespace weather forecast?
SENSEI: Even ordinary people
can easily check space weather
forecasts via the Internet orsmartphone apps! In addition,some countries and regions
have their own organizations
that publish space weather
forecasts.
MOL: Wow! Is that so! I thought
it was something you had to be
an expert to see. And, well...I
hate to say this, but are space
weather forecasts accurate...?
SENSEI: Well, yes... Current
space weather forecasting has
limitations in accuracy andprediction period. Also, there
are still many unknowns in
predicting solar activity. It is
hoped that the development of
more advanced observation andanalysis techniques will enable
more accurate space weather
forecasting in the future....
That's the way it is at themoment.

I took a look at NICT's
space weather forecast
on my smartphone!
On the page,
I can see data of sunspots
on the surface of the Sun,
prominence,and ﬂare (corona) conditions
on the Sun's surface.
Other various values
and graphs such as thenumber of sunspots, solar
ﬂares, and changes in thegeomagnetic ﬁeld canalso be seen.

MOL: I see..! So space weather
forecasting will continue toevolve...?
SENSEI: Space weather on theMoon and Mars will become
more and more important as thearea of human activity expandsin the future.
MIRUBO: I'm rooting for it to getbetter in the future!
SENSEI: Please take a look at
the news about space weather
forecast when it is available!

0+%65RCEG9GCVJGT(QTGECUVThis is the site of an information
distribution service specializing inspace weather forecasts, operated by
the Space Environment ResearchLaboratory, Electromagnetic Wave
Research Institute, National Institute ofInformation and Communications
Technology (NICT).
https://swc.nict.go.jp/en/

01##592%9GCVJGT(QTGECUVThis is an information site by the U.S.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration's (NOAA) ResearchLaboratory and the Weather Prediction
Center (SWPC).
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

+PUVKVWVGHQT5RCEG◭'CTVJ'PXKTQPOGPVCN4GUGCTEJ
 +5'' 0CIQ[C7PKXGTUKV[The Institute for Space‒Earth Environmental Research (ISEE),Nagoya University, Japan, was launched in October 2015 bymerging three institutes of Nagoya University: the Solar Terrestrial
Environment Laboratory, the Center for Hydrospheric AtmosphericResearch, and the Center for Chronological Research. The missionof the ISEE is to clarify the mechanisms and mutual relationships ofthe Earth, the Sun, and cosmic space, treating them as a seamlesssystem and to beneﬁt humanity by resolving issues in the global
environment and contributing to the advances of space
exploration. https://www.isee.nagoya-u.ac.jp/en/5EKGPVKHKE%QOOKVVGGQP5QNCT6GTTGUVTKCN2J[UKEU 5%156'2
Scientiﬁc Committee on Solar‒Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP) is one of
the Aﬃliated Bodies of the International Science Coucil (ISC) and is apermanent observer at the United Nations Committee on the PeacefulUses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS). SCOSTEP promotes ISCʼ smission to strengthen international science for the beneﬁt of society,by running long-term (4-5 years) international interdisciplinaryscientiﬁc programs of solar terrestrial physics. SCOSTEP promotes
capacity building and outreach activities on the Sun-Earth System andhow it aﬀects life and society. https://scostep.org/

2$#5'2TQITCO
The PBASE Program is an international joint research project tocontribute to safe and secure space utilization by further
internationalizing and upgrading geospace change research andprediction using large-scale observation facilities for geospace (spacearound the Earth) and upper atmosphere. By involving young
researchers and graduate students in this research, the project aims
to foster researchers and engineers who will play central roles infuture geospace research and development. This booklet is producedwith the support of the PBASE program (JSPS Grant-in-Aid for
Scientiﬁc Research and International Leading Research: 22K21345).
https://www.isee.nagoya-u.ac.jp/dimr/PBASE/en/*C[CPQP

5EKGPEG/CPIC5VWFKQ,CRCP

Science manga artist, born in 1975. Graduated from theDepartment of Physics, Faculty of Science, University ofthe Ryukyus, with a B.A. (Science). M.A. (Education) in
English Education, Graduate School of Education, Chiba
University. Her representative works include "GoGo!
MIRUBO" (Kodomo no Kagaku), "Fantastic R&D" (NikkanKogyo Shimbun), "Lerning Earth Science with MIRUBO"(NASA), "International Science Olympiad Manga" (JapanScience and Technology Agency). She is a
representative of "Science Manga Studio," a PR for
research business.

The studio produces manga introducing
research in all ﬁelds of science and humanities,
cover art for academic journals, and provides
illustrations explaining the results of research
institutions' presentations. Through theproduction of these works, the studio fosters
young science illustrators.

5EKGPEGKNNWUVTCVQTUKPVJGRTQFWEVKQP
parsely918, Kamito Sumi, Ms.Shell, Milli, andMochiduki Ami from Science Manga Studio.

This is a research introduction Manga series started in 2002.

9JCV+Uä!5GTKGU You can learn about the study of the Sun - Earth with Sensei, Mirubo and Mol.

https://www.isee.nagoya-u.ac.jp/en/outreach.html

ISEE MIRUBOSEARCHPDFs are distributed free of charge. In addition to the English version, Japanese andother foreign language versions are also available.