A rideshare payload launching on an upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is due to fly itself 1 million mi. from Earth and become the first spacecraft to continuously monitor the space weather environment for potentially disruptive solar storms.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Follow On L1 (SWFO-L1) mission is expected to launch Sept. 23 with NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe and the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory.
The SWFO-L1 observatory is the first NOAA satellite designed specifically for, and fully dedicated to, continuous operational space weather observations. It is expected to monitor solar eruptions and serve as an early warning beacon for destructive space weather events.
Built by BAE Systems, SWFO-L1 is the first of a series of new observatories to replace aging space weather satellites operating at the Lagrange Point 1, a gravitationally stable region located about 1 million mi. from Earth.
The observatory will enable aging legacy satellites to be decommissioned without causing a coverage gap, NASA says. Solar observatories that are well past their design life include:
• Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, an European Space Agency-NASA project launched in 1995
• Advanced Composition Explore, a NASA probe launched in 1997
• Deep Space Climate Observatory, a NOAA spacecraft launched in 2015.
Unlike its predecessors, the SWFO-L1 observatory will constantly stream data down to Earth without interruption and obstruction, offering improved performance over older instruments and faster delivery of observations.
The observatory has four instruments including an upgraded coronagraph to scout the Sun’s outer atmosphere for newly erupted coronal mass ejections (CME). These plasma storms, which send billions of tons of superheated protons, electrons and other particles into space, can affect electronic systems in satellites and on the ground.
Research satellites have been tapped to provide space weather forecasters with data about the Sun, which is just passing the peak of its 11-year solar cycle.
“For years we have relied on satellites, some which are well past their design lifespans, to give us official warnings about solar storms,” Irene Parker, deputy assistant administrator for systems at the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, said at an Aug. 21 press briefing.
“These warning are the first line of defense against potentially devastating effects of space weather,” she added. “Imagine a massive surge of energy from the Sun that could overload power grids, knock out GPS or disrupt air travel. These are all of the threats our SWFO-L1 observatory is designed to combat. … Like an ocean tsunami, it can’t stop an incoming threat, but it can give us time to prepare.”
Once operational, SWFO-L1 is expected to provide CME imagery in about 30 min. compared to 8 hr. for images from the research satellites, said Richard Ullman, deputy director of NOAA’s Office of Space Weather Observations. “This will be transformative for operational space weather forecasting,” he said.
If SWFO-L1 is launched as planned in late September, it should reach its L1 operational orbit and complete commissioning in February. The satellite is designed for a five-year primary mission but has enough consumables to operate for 10 years.