NASA Awards NOAA’s Solar Wind Plasma Sensors Contract
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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has awarded a contract to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to develop and build a suite of solar wind plasma sensors for the agency’s next-generation weather satellite system.
The Solar Wind Plasma Sensors (SWPS) will be used to measure the speed, density, and temperature of the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emitted from the Sun. This information will be used to improve forecasts of space weather, which can disrupt communications, navigation, and power systems on Earth.
The SWPS will be part of the Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) mission, which is scheduled to launch in the early 2030s. GeoXO will be a constellation of four satellites that will provide continuous observations of the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, and land surface from geostationary orbit.
The SWPS contract is worth $125 million. The sensors will be built by NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) in Boulder, Colorado.
“SWPS is a critical component of the GeoXO mission,” said William Murtagh, director of the SWPC. “The data from SWPS will help us to improve our understanding of space weather and its effects on Earth.”
The SWPS will be the first space weather sensors to be flown in geostationary orbit. This will provide a unique perspective on the solar wind and its interaction with the Earth’s magnetosphere.
“SWPS will revolutionize our ability to forecast space weather,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science. “This data will help us to protect our infrastructure and our astronauts from the harmful effects of space weather.”
In Detail
The SWPS will consist of three sensors:
- A Faraday cup to measure the speed and density of the solar wind
- A time-of-flight mass spectrometer to measure the composition of the solar wind
- A plasma spectrometer to measure the temperature of the solar wind
The sensors will be mounted on the side of the GeoXO satellites. They will be able to scan the entire sky, providing a complete picture of the solar wind.
The data from the SWPS will be transmitted to the ground in real time. It will be used by the SWPC to create space weather forecasts. These forecasts will be used by a variety of users, including utilities, airlines, and the military.
The SWPS is a major step forward in space weather forecasting. It will provide the most accurate and comprehensive data on the solar wind ever collected. This data will help us to better understand space weather and its effects on Earth.
NASA Awards NOAA’s Solar Wind Plasma Sensors Contract
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