Electric FM because this wind comes from space. It's called the solar wind, and when it arrives it creates the most spectacular show on Earth. million miles away, the sun erupts, spewing a barrage of charged particles out into space. At its fastest, a solar wind travels about four million miles an hour, but because it has so few particles in it, it wouldn't even ruffle your hair. As I speak, billions of charged particles are passing through us all and by now they're already way out in space. Although we can't see or feel the solar wind, we can see its presence in one of nature's most fantastic displays of light, miles above our heads. The Aurora the northern and southern lights. You're looking at billions of electrons charged particles in the solar wind that hit the atmosphere and excite the gases within it, creating the ultimate space rainbow. As the solar wind washes over the earth's magnetic field, the charged particles within are drawn down over the polar regions. When they hit the atmosphere, the Aurora is created. It's the same mechanism that's making the picture you're watching right now. The Earth's magnetic force guides the particles in the same way your Electric FM tube guides these images onto the screen. But does the solar wind affect our weather? Yes, but no one knows exactly how. It certainly seems to affect the ferocity of polar storms. Some believe all those particles from the sun crash into the troposphere, creating more clouds and fuelling more storms. While scientists cannot agree on exactly how solar winds do this, they realise that the forces that drive our weather do not stop at the boundary between Earth and space. Back on Earth, this frozen landscape marks the end of my journey. The winds I followed from the equator have taken about days to enter the last of the big wind cells. It's been quite a ride! Here in the frozen north, the wind's journey to the poles finally ends. In just two weeks, our journey, which began in the hot stillness of the doldrums, has brought us everything from storms at sea to the terrifying power of a hurricane. After carrying all this violence, it comes to rest here, sinking gently back towards Earth. Now all this cold air begins to slip south and the cycle starts all over again. Electric FM This enormous cycle of the winds has brought every kind of weather to every corner of the earth. As it churns endlessly through the atmosphere, it shapes our world and changes our lives. In the next programme, I'm going to take a ride with water, the fuel of the weather. Driven by the winds, water can bring life and death. I'll be following water's journey around the planet from the oceans to the clouds, from a storm to a flood, to experience the awesome power it can unleash.