CubeSat instrument extends solar storm warnings 10x

A team of researchers from Imperial College London has developed a CubeSat instrument called HENON, designed to improve space weather forecasting. The CubeSat is planned to orbit 15 million kilometers from Earth, significantly farther than current spacecraft, which could extend advance warning time from 15 minutes to up to 3 hours. The instrument measures the solar magnetic field to assess the severity of space weather events. The success of HENON will be a step change in our ability to forecast space weather and pave the way for a future operational space weather mission, SHIELD, being developed by the European Space Agency (ESA). The Carrington Event, the most intense space weather event of the technological era, occurred in 1859 and caused global auroras and disruptions to telegraph systems. Since then, less powerful space weather events have occurred, including the "Jennifer Gannon" superstorm from 2024 and an S4 solar radiation storm in 2026. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) uses a rating system called the Space Weather Scales to classify space weather events, with G, S, and R scales indicating geomagnetic storms, solar radiation storms, and radio blackouts, respectively. The future ESA SHIELD mission is planned to continue improving space weather forecasting based on HENON's work.

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