Statistical Association between Space Weather and Meteorological Variables During Winter in the Baltic Sea Region

Some authors suggest that space weather events may affect daily weather variables, such as air temperature and atmospheric pressure. Associations between space weather events and daily weather variables have been analyzed in four Baltic airports near Kaunas, Vilnius, Riga, and Tallinn during 2000–2016. We hypothesized that space weather events, 1–5 days before or after them, and intersection days (1–5 days after the event, which coincided with 1–5 days before the event) might be associated with changes in the daily weather variables. The effects of space weather were analyzed by using multivariate linear regression adjusting for the month, the linear trend, the QBO phase, and the NAO index. In all the studied cities, higher daily mean air temperature (T) was observed both during the period of 1–3 days before—1–4 days after high-speed solar wind (HSSW) (β > 1.8, p 10 MeV energy flux >10 pfu (β > 1.9, p 1000 pfu was related to lower T, relative humidity (RH), and WS, and higher ATP in all cities (p < 0.001 in all cases). In Northern airports, RH tended to be lower during geomagnetic storms (GS) or GS intersection days (p < 0.01). Such space weather events as HSSW and SPE may be associated with short-term changes in weather variables.