New NOAA DSCOVR Satellite to Multitask by Watching Both Earth and the Sun

A new satellite may be multitasking after it's launched into space. While some satellites only monitor the Earth and other satellites only monitor the sun, the new DSCOVR satellite will keep an eye on both.

Most satellites that do only one task either orbit closely to the Earth or closely to the sun. Yet the Deep Space Climate Observatory, DSCOVR, will orbit between Earth and the sun. Its main mission will be to observe and provide advanced warning of extreme emissions of particles and magnetic fields from the sun known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which can impact communications systems and satellites closer to Earth.

This isn't the only task that DSCOVR will focus on, though. It will also observe our planet and provide measurements of the radiation reflected and emitted by Earth and multi-spectral images of the sunlit side of Earth for science applications.

The satellite will orbit at a position at what is called the L1 point in space. L1 means the Lagrange point 1, which is approximately one million miles from Earth. Once launched, the satellite will take about 110 days to arrive in this orbit.

This position in space will provide DSCOVR with a point of "early warning" when a surge of particles and magnetic field from the sun will hit Earth, if they have characteristics that will cause a geomagnetic storm for Earth. Unlike other satellite orbits that circle Earth, spacecraft at L1 can always stay on the sunward side of our planet, making it an ideal location for monitoring incoming solar wind. In fact, this will be the first time that a NOAA satellite will orbit in L1, though NASA satellites have used the L1 position before.

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