Real-time data from NASA’s Advanced Composition Explorer satellite, launched in August 1997, became part of the daily space weather forecast operations today, providing forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Environment Center with a valuable tool to improve the forecasts and warnings of solar storms.
At a ribbon cutting at the Space Environment Center (SEC) facility in
Boulder, Colo., officials from NOAA, NASA, the U.S. Air Force, the
Japanese Communications Research Laboratory, and others, celebrated
the cooperative efforts that permitted SEC to successfully receive the data.
Congratulations were also received from the President’s science advisor,
Jack Gibbons, who commended the agencies involved for this achievement.
Dr. Elbert (Joe) Friday, director of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research for
NOAA, spoke at the gathering and predicted that the Advanced
Composition Explorer (ACE) “will become as significant to space weather
forecasting as meteorological satellites are in forecasting weather on
Earth.”
SEC personnel at the NOAA/SEC Center declared the data from ACE
operational on Wednesday, Jan. 21. Once operational, the ACE
measurements become an integral part of predicting geomagnetic storms.
“This is a great advance for space weather forecasting. We now have a
satellite strategically positioned between the sun and the Earth,
intercepting solar winds and geomagnetic activity and allowing us to warn
users such as satellite operations, electric power control centers and
others of a potential threat,” said Ernie Hildner, SEC director.
ACE is a coordinated project between NASA, NOAA and the U.S. Air
Force. Both NOAA and Air Force forecasters are incorporating the ACE
data into operations, allowing the agencies to issue one-hour
geomagnetic storm alerts with almost 100 percent accuracy.
Tracking stations around the globe transmit the data to SEC forecasters.
These stations are located in Japan and England, and include global
tracking networks such as that run by the Air Force, and the NASA Deep
Space network.
Geomagnetic storms develop when masses of highly energetic charged
particles are ejected from the sun and, subsequently, hit Earth’s magnetic
field. When the Earth encounters these storms, extraordinary fluctuations
occur, at times severe enough to disrupt technological systems on
satellites and on the ground. The ACE satellite measures the chemical
composition of escaping particles from the sun, as well as solar winds’
speed, density and magnetic field. The data is relayed to Earth by
transmitter and used by forecasters to issue alerts.
The sun recently began a new 11-year solar cycle, which is expected to
peak around March 2000. “The timing couldn’t be better as we are moving
into a new solar cycle and expecting increased solar activity that threatens
technological systems on Earth,” added Hildner. “With ACE data we can
provide the operators of technological systems additional time to adjust
operations to minimize disruptions.”
NOAA’s Space Environment Center is the nation’s official source of space
weather alerts and warnings. The Center continually monitors and
forecasts Earth’s space environment; provides accurate, reliable and
useful solar-terrestrial information; and leads programs to improve
services.
