The sun provides warmth and light and thus ensures life. But at the same time, solar storms are also a threat-NASA room probes should take a closer look.
On Wednesday (September 24th), three new space vehicles successfully started from the Kennedy Space Center of NASA in Florida. They are supposed to carry out missions that enable a better understanding of the sun and its effects on earth. One of the satellites is the first to monitor the sun for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) around the clock. It will be able to spend early warnings in front of solar storms, which can produce beautiful North and southern lights, but also interfere with our power grids and communication systems.
Another spacecraft that is compared to a heavenly cartographer received the order from NASA to create unprecedented cards of our sun environment. And the third, a small NASA satellite, is sent to research the invisible halo around the earth, which the Apollo astronauts first depicted. The missions are promising for those in the space weather community who examine how the activity of the sun surface affects the rest of the solar system.
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Table of Contents
- “Everyone on Earth is influenced by space weather”
- The Northern Lights enchant Germany – so beautifully the sky shone last night
- NASA is happy about “a lot of support from the government for space weather”
- Solar-1 is intended to improve prediction of solar towers
- Noaa wants to spend more specific warnings about space weather
- IMAP of the NASA for the mapping of our solar neighborhood
- Understand the influence of the sun on earth
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“Everyone on Earth is influenced by space weather”
“Every person on earth as well as almost every system that has to do with space research and the needs of people is influenced by space weather,” said Joe Westlake, director of NASA’s heliophysics department, during a press conference on Sunday. “Almost everything you use – from the cell phones in your pocket to the food that comes to your table – has something to do with the processes in space.”
The space vehicles of NASA and NOAA started at a time when the authorities are confronted with possible drastic budget cuts, including satellite programs to observe the earth. The President’s budget, however, provides for an increase in NASA’s space weather program. Another space weather satellite is scheduled to start this year to examine the weather on Mars.
NASA is happy about “a lot of support from the government for space weather”
“We have seen a lot of support from the government for space weather and the protection of assets and of course people,” said Nicola Fox, Head of Science at NASA Washington Post. “One of our highest priorities is, of course, to bring people to the moon and then to look at the Mars. Of course, this is completely in line with what we do in the area of space weather.”
The three spacecraft started around 7:30 a.m. in a cosmic carpool on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. According to Fox, this represented a much more cost -effective transport option than the start with three separate carriers. You will need about four months to achieve your goal, which is about 1 million miles (about 1.6 million kilometers) from Earth at a place called Lagrange 1. From there, the satellites have a unhindered view of the sun without particles from the earth hinder the view.
Solar-1 is intended to improve prediction of solar towers
An eruption on the sun can spin strong charges of loaded particles onto the earth and interfere with power grids, radio connections, GPS signals and satellite communication. The new NOAA satellite should help us to recognize when such disorders will face us. The satellite’s corona grab – one of four instruments on board – will provide pictures of eruptions within 30 minutes of eruptions. That would be a great improvement compared to the eight-hour delay of the previous room vehicles.
“We will place a buoy in space at a million miles away from the earth to protect our way of life,” said Clinton Wallace, director of the Space Weather Prediction Center of the NOAA, at the press conference on Sunday. “It will recognize solar storms within minutes, so that in the Space Weather Prediction Center we can contribute to the fact that the lights stay on, airplanes fly and satellites are safe.”
The new satellite, which will bear the name Solar-1 after reaching its stable orbit, is a first step to replace the outdated space weather observatories. These satellites have provided valuable information about our sun, but the decades -old space vehicles were only intended for research purposes and have long since exceeded their planned lifespan. (The NOAA started a similar corona grove on a weather satellite in June 2024, but the new satellite will be closer to our mother star and also provide information about the plasma and the magnetic field of the sun for predictions.)
Noaa wants to spend more specific warnings about space weather
In May 2024, one of the most intense solar storms has occurred in decades. Scientists say that the earth is long overdue for an even bigger event. The NOAA is currently revising the way it communicates technical predictions and warnings to people outside the area of space weather. From this autumn, the authority will work with network operators and others to improve your website and to spend more specific warnings about when solar activities could influence the earth and where the risk is greatest.
“It is very clear that a clear communication of the risks for people in orbit or electricity networks is needed. The end user cannot really interpret much of it,” said Scott Mcintosh from Lynker Space, who works with the NOAA. “Let us develop communication channels so that we can better tell you what to expect and when you have to count on it.”
IMAP of the NASA for the mapping of our solar neighborhood
The Interstellar mapping and acceleration sample (IMAP) of the NASA will map particles that move through the solar system – particles that are expelled by the sun, as well as material that comes from the interstellar space. The goal is to create a comprehensive map of the “heliosphle”, the protective shield around the solar system. This arises from sunwind flowing outwards, holds harmful galactic radiation and supports life.
The spaceship is equipped with 10 instruments and will also monitor space weather. The data is continuously transferred to the earth and fed into computer models that can predict the effects of solar storms on earth and other nearby planets. For an astronaut on the moon, the probe could provide information about harmful radiation storms about 30 minutes in advance – “faster than any other spaceship before”, says Fox.
One of the instruments is also a very large dust detector who measures the elementary composition of the dust that is coming from the interstellar space. “According to our calculations, we should have 100 dust hit in the first year. That would be more than humanity has so far reached in the history of space travel,” said Dave McComas, main researcher of the IMAP mission and professor at Princeton University.
Understand the influence of the sun on earth
In April 1972, the Astronauts of Apollo 16 placed an ultraviolet camera on the moon and took photos of a weak, invisible halo around the earth. But the pictures of this “Geokorona” only raised further questions: How big is the halo? Is it spherical or oval? How does he change during a tunnel tower? So far, NASA has not started any other ultraviolet camera to answer these questions – until now.
The Carruthers Geocorona Observatory of NASA will examine the corona around the earth with two cameras. The layer extends beyond the orbit of the moon, i.e. around 390,000 miles (about 630,000 kilometers) away from the earth’s surface. It consists almost exclusively of hydrogen atoms that shine in the ultraviolet light of the sun and can be recorded by the two cameras on the satellite.
Scientists are interested in learning how this layer changes and recovered in view of a tanning tower. It helps to absorb and derive the energy of a storm before reaching the earth. “We will turn around almost continuously and look back on earth,” said Lara Waldrop, main researcher of Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “With these pictures we can … essentially create films and watch closely what happens when a tanning tower meets the earth.”
Kasha patel reports on scientific topics around the earth, from the earth’s core to space storms that are heading for our planet. She also reports on news about weather, climate and the environment.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article was automatically translated into German from English.
This article was first published on September 24, 2025 in English at the “Washingtonpost.com”-in the course of a cooperation, it is now also available to the readers of the Ippen.media portals.
