It is a component of the Natural Environment Research Council. Dr Richard Horne is the Principal Investigator of a scientific research programme looking at energy transfer from the Sun into the Earth's magnetic field. The solar wind is a gusty ever-present stream of ions and electrons emitted by the Sun's hot atmosphere. When solar wind conditions change sharply, for example during huge solar events called coronal mass ejections, the Earth's magnetic environment is affected and cause large fluxes of 'killer' electrons that encircle the Earth with a potentially deadly effect on satellites. Also, satellite surfaces can charge to thousands of volts, ground-based compass needles can shift by 10 degrees, communications can be affected and power distribution systems can have problems.
Space is part of everybody's daily lives.
Satellites transmit television, telephone and other information around the world, and watch over our changing environment. As it tracks destructive hurricanes on Earth, a satellite might itself be damaged by another kind of storm - one which occurs in space. These magnetic storms disrupt radio communications and have caused electricity blackouts. Geospace is big - it's more than a million kilometres long. It is not empty space, there just are not that many particles - if you brought all the particles down to the ground they would fit inside a typical supermarket.