Iridium satellites - New tool for space weather forecasting. Credit: Iridium
There’s a new space-based system to monitor Earth’s space environment.
Introducing the Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment (AMPERE) – the system provides real-time magnetic field measurements using commercial satellites as part of a new observation network to forecast weather in space.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) — with help from The Boeing Company and Iridium Communications Inc. — has successfully implemented the system.
According to the system operators: This is the first step in developing a system that enables 24-hour tracking of Earth’s response to supersonic blasts of plasma ejected from the sun at collection rates fast enough to one day enable forecasters to predict space weather effects.
“This milestone brings us one step closer to accurate space weather forecasts around the Earth,” said APL’s Brian Anderson, principal investigator and the scientist who spearheads the program.
Next wave of solar storms
Solar storms can disrupt satellite service and damage telecommunications networks, cause power grid blackouts and even endanger high-altitude aircraft, Anderson notes.
“The next wave of solar storms will occur over the next three to five years and recent solar activity is just the beginning of a long, stormy space weather ‘season.’ The timing for AMPERE is just right because we need this system both to help us understand how solar storms disturb the space environment and to develop reliable monitoring and forecasts of major space weather storms,” Anderson added.
APL, working with Boeing, partnered with Iridium to introduce this new capability by using Iridium’s commercial satellite constellation.
“The AMPERE program validates the potential for using sensors on the LEO Iridium satellites to provide unprecedented visibility over the entire Earth’s surface and its atmosphere,” explained Don Thoma, executive vice president, Marketing, Iridium.
The next step for the APL scientists will be to develop the analytical tools to evaluate and forecast severe geomagnetic storms in space. This phase of the project is on schedule and the first release of AMPERE space weather products to the scientific community is planned for the fourth quarter of 2010.
By LD/CSE