MLSO is resuming normal operations just in time to support NASA’s Artemis II mission to the moon by sending advance warnings should the observatory’s main coronagraph detect potentially dangerous space weather.

Researchers at the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) and Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) have developed a new tool providing a first step toward the ability to forecast space weather weeks in advance, instead of just hours. This advance warning could allow agencies and industries to mitigate impacts to GPS, power grids, astronaut safety and more.

NASA has selected the Chromospheric Magnetism Explorer (CMEx) for an extended period of concept development.

NSF NCAR was selected by NASA to construct a breadbox-sized satellite that will give scientists a powerful new tool to observe the Sun’s chromosphere, a poorly understood region of the solar atmosphere where the energy that powers solar storms builds up before being released.

Rising concentrations of carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere will change how geomagnetic storms impact Earth in ways that have implications for thousands of orbiting satellites.