Space Weather May be Predicted Five Days in Advance with New Mission

Space weather can cause trouble for space missions and communications. Now, though, researchers may have found a way to predict space weather up to five days in advance. Scientists have proposed an operational mission called Carrington-L5 to give that five-day warning.

In this case, coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are the issue. These solar eruptions hurl solar particles toward Earth at blinding speeds. These particles, in particular, can interact with our planet's magnetic field and cause extensive disruption to satellite and communication networks.

Currently, warnings of CME activity rely on facilities like SOHO, STEREO and SDO. Yet none of these are designed to provide data around the clock, which is necessary for accurate and timely forecasts. That's why researchers are now proposing a new mission to monitor CME activity and arrival forecasts.

The Carrington-L5 mission would reuse systems developed by Airbus for previous space missions in order to minimize the cost. It would carry all critical instruments and would be able to operate for at least a decade even under extreme space weather conditions.

More specifically, the mission would utilize a gravitational balance point, known as L5, which would allow it to trail the Earth in its orbit around the sun by about 150 million kilometers. This would give the spacecraft a view of what's happening on the surface of the sun several days in advance of when an active area spins around towards Earth.

This new mission could be important in terms of moving satellites into safe locations in case a CME is headed toward Earth. In addition, it could allow our planet to better prepare for potential communications "blackouts" during a large CME.

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