We present a detailed account of the science programme PRESTO (PREdictability of the variable Solar–Terrestrial cOupling), covering the period 2020 to 2024. PRESTO was defined by a dedicated committee established by SCOSTEP (Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics). We review the current state of the art and discuss future studies required for the most effective development of solar–terrestrial physics.

In the past, additional sodium peaks occurring above the main sodium layer of the upper mesosphere were discussed. Here, formation of an additional sodium peak below the main sodium layer peak is discussed in detail. The event coincided with passage of multiple mesospheric bores, which are step-like disturbances occurring in the upper mesosphere. Hence, this work highlights the importance of such mesospheric bores in causing significant changes to the minor species concentration in a short time.

We have developed a user-friendly program that can efficiently deal with extensive amounts of airglow data. We have applied this new program to airglow data obtained at different latitudes in polar, midlatitude, and equatorial regions and demonstrated distinct differences in atmospheric gravity wave (AGW) propagation characteristics and energy distribution. We aim to encourage other AGW research groups to use the program and do comparisons to reveal AGW characteristics on a more global scale.

In this study, we statistically analyzed severe magnetic fluctuations in the nightside near-Earth plasma sheet. For the first time, we showed the occurrence rates of these fluctuations. The superposed epoch analysis also indicated that the flow speed increases before the severe magnetic fluctuations. We also discussed how both the inside-out and outside-in substorm models can be used to explain these observed results.

We explore bursty multiscale energy dissipation from earthquakes by comparing predictions of nonequilibrium phase transitions with nonstandard statistical signatures of earthquake scaling. Do earthquakes fit the hypothesis of an avalanching critical system? We study a set of new power law exponents, and compare these explicitly to predictions for critical avalanching systems. At below 84 hours radiated energy follows patterns fitting the theory of nonequilibrium phase transitions.