Angelo Secchi e la nascita della meteorologia spaziale moderna = Angelo Secchi and the birth of modern space weather

Nowadays, with the term “space meteorology” or “space weather” we refer to a class of physical processes that affect the conditions of the Sun, in connection with its magnetic activity, solar wind and solar energetic particles and finally the physical state of the circumterrestrial (i.e., magnetosphere, ionosphere and thermosphere) and interplanetary space. More specifically, we refer to all those processes affecting the performance and reliability of space and terrestrial technological systems and that, potentially, can endanger human health, especially in dangerous conditions such as those of aircraft or spaceship crews. In this paper we describe how the Memoria written by Angelo Secchi, describing the massive solar storm of February 4, 1872, is modern in both its multi-instrumental approach and connection between solar/terrestrial processes and terrestrial infrastructures. This Memoria definitively represents one of the first examples of systematic analysis of a solar event with effects on Earth, what we would today call an extreme space weather or Carrington event.