REAL LIFE NEWS: CHECKING THE WEATHER IN SPACE
by Hazed
A new satellite intended to monitor the sun and give warnings of hazardous outbursts has just been launched. Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) is the property of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“DSCOVR will serve as our ‘tsunami buoy in space’, if you will, giving forecasters up to an hour’s warning on the arrival of the huge magnetic eruptions from the Sun that occasionally occur called Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs),” explained Tom Berger, the director of Noaa’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado.
“CMEs are the cause of the largest geomagnetic storms at Earth, some of which can severely disrupt our technological society, causing loss of communications with aircraft, particularly those flying over the poles; damage to satellites in orbit; and even damage to power grid equipment on the ground.”
DSCOVR will reach its operational station in just over 100 days.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31173411
