Alright guys, so space weather is awesome!
But it’s also terrible and we should really keep our eye on it.
How do we do that?
Hey everyone, Julia here for DNews.
In recent space news, Space X has been attempting to launch a rocket from Cape Canaveral.
What’s cool about this launch, isn’t just the rocket, but its cool cargo.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is carrying the Deep Space Climate Observatory, or because
astronomy loves acronyms, DSCOVR.
Orbiting between the sun and the Earth, the satellite will measure space weather, while
also keeping an eye on Earth.
DSCOVR is actually an old idea.
Al Gore first proposed it in 1998, but it was called Triana back then.
Its main goal has always been to keep watch over Earth.
It was originally going to take real time images of Earth streamed right to the internet.
Which was such a new and exciting thing back then.
Gore hoped it would help raise global environmental awareness, similar to the now famous Blue
Marble image.
After being shelved for more than a decade, the 100 million dollar satellite was dusted
off and given new life and a new name.
Now dubbed DSCOVR it will orbit a million miles from earth and 91, 960, 000 miles from
the sun.
This position sits perfectly between the two bodies at place called Lagrangian point 1.
One of the five positions in our solar system where a small object affected only by gravity
can maintain a stable orbit.
Using the original technology when it was known as Triana, it keeps one eye on the sun
and the other on Earth.
One of the instruments on board, EPIC, will take full-Earth pictures about every two hours
and will able to process them faster than other Earth observation satellites.
Apart from taking pretty pictures, DSCOVER also looks at Earth’s energy output, things
like vegetation and ozone which improves on current climate models.
Looking the other way, it serves as an early warning system as it measures the intensity
of sun’s magnetic charges as well as the direction and distribution of the solar wind
plasma.
When the sun spontaneously acts up, sending particles and magnetic charges toward Earth,
the satellite will let us know 15-60 minutes before the charges reach us.
In case this sounds vaguely familiar, there are two other satellites currently in the
Lagrangian point 1 measuring solar winds and charges.
WIND, launched in 1994, still sends significant data back to Earth.
Over 3000 publications either directly or indirectly have used Wind data.
ACE or Advanced Composition Explorer, which launched in 1997, studies solar winds and
particles from the interplanetary medium.
Almost 20 years later, it’s still used to predict solar storms.
but both of these have been going for a pretty long time, almost 20 years, their original
mission length was only 5 years.
So they might not have a lot of time left.
DSCOVR will replace ACE in terms of data used by the Space Weather Prediction Center.
It can measure the speed of solar wind ions faster than the current two satellites.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, they’ll be getting real-time
space weather data about 100 times faster than any other spacecraft in this orbit.
But what is space weather and why are we measuring it?
Well just like earth weather, it’s pretty unpredictable.
If a solar wind shock wave or cloud of magnetic field hits Earth, it disturbs the Earth’s
magnetic field, while it might look really cool, I mean Aurora Borealis looks AWESOME.
Yet, rare intense solar activity can knock out power and cause billions of dollars of
damage in electrical systems like satellites, power grids, and navigational equipment.
So it’s good thing to keep an eye on it.
[YT] If you wanna know more about how space weather
can really mess up our game here on earth, Trace has a video about that right over here.
And to find out why rocket launches get scrubbed all the time, check out our other video on
this side.
So what do you think?
Are you stoked for DSCOVR?
Let us know in the comments below and while you’re at it.
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