Spacecraft used to forecast solar storm 15 hours before it hit Earth

Solar storms pose a threat to electronic systems on EarthSolar Dynamics Observatory, NASA. We may one day be able to forecast powerful solar storms capable of devastating Earths electronics more than half a day in advance, following a successful test of the approach using the Solar Orbiter spacecraft. The sun occasionally releases powerful blasts of plasma called coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which can generate strong magnetic fields that might damage electronics on Earth. However, while we have satellites and telescopes watching for signs of a CME, we cant accurately predict which ejections pose a threat, because this depends on the magnetic field inside the CMEs themselves. Read moreWe live in a cosmic void so empty that it breaks the laws of cosmology Among our most reliable tools for measuring these magnetic fields are satellites in gravitationally stable orbits around Earth called Lagrange points. These satellites are located hundreds of thousands of kilometres from Earth but they are still positioned only about 1 per cent of the distance between our planet and the sun, which helps explain why they can only give warning of how powerful a CME might be less than an hour before it hits. Now, Emma Davies at the Austrian Space Weather Office in Graz and her colleagues have found a way to provide an earlier warning using the European Space Agencys Solar Orbiter, which orbits our star between 30 and 90 per cent of the distance between the sun and Earth. Solar Orbiter is a science mission, its not really designed for this purpose, says Davies. *Reporting by Newscientist.*