NOAA’s SOLAR-1 Enters New Era Of Space Weather Monitoring
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https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/noaas-solar-1-enters-new-era-of-space-weather-monitoring <-- shared technical article
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https://www.spaceweather.gov/ <-- shared NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) home page
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https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/our-satellites/future-programs/swfo/space-weather-observations-l1-advance-readiness-solar-1 <-- shared SOLAR-1 overview and details page
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https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/our-environment/space-weather <-- shared overview of space weather and its risk, hazards & impacts
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[I was lucky enough to see the launch from the Kennedy Space Center of GOES-19/U, my first launch - and love reading about the ‘ongoing story’…]
“NOAA’s Space weather Observations at L1 to Advance Readiness – 1 (SOLAR-1) observatory has officially entered operational service, marking a major milestone for the nation’s resilience to space weather events. SOLAR-1 is the first U.S. satellite designed exclusively for continuous, operational space weather observations…
SOLAR-1 strengthens the nation’s ability to safeguard systems that can be disrupted by space weather, including the electric grid, satellites, communications, aviation, navigation systems, including GPS, national security operations, and human spaceflight, such as NASA’s recently-completed Artemis II mission.
For NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, SOLAR-1 is a cornerstone of the nation’s space weather early warning system, providing the observations needed to issue timely watches, warnings, alerts, and decision support before solar storms impact critical infrastructure and missions.
As reliance on space-based systems grows and as space exploration expands through missions such as NASA’s Artemis, sustained investment in operational space weather capabilities is increasingly vital to national readiness, astronaut safety and space asset protection.
SOLAR-1 will ensure continuity of space weather monitoring at L1, constantly streaming data down to Earth without interruption and obstruction, offering improved performance over older instruments and faster delivery of observations to NOAA’s SWPC.
For example, SOLAR-1’s coronagraph will deliver CME imagery to SWPC forecasters/users within 30 minutes of being captured in space, compared to research observatories and instruments, such as ESA-NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory’s coronagraph imaging, which can take up to eight hours. In situ data from SOLAR-1’s Solar Wind Plasma Sensor, SupraThermal Ion Sensor, and Magnetometer will be available within five minutes.
SOLAR-1, and future planned satellite missions for L1, are vital for reducing operational observations risk when it comes to collecting data and information that helps society get ahead of the threats to the nation’s critical infrastructure. SOLAR-1 data will be available to the public in real time via the SWPC website and archived through the NESDIS Space Weather Portal…”
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