NOAA's New Satellite, DSCOVR, Monitors The Space Weather

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) newest satellite called DSCOVR could detect the incoming weather. It could also send information about potentially damaging space weather back to the planet Earth.

According to NOAA, the new satellite is located approximately 1 million miles from the Earth's surface. It sits at a point called as Lagrange point 1 or L1, wherein the gravitational forces between Earth and the sun are in balance.

The space weather sensors of DSCOVR include the Faraday cup plasma sensor. This measures the density, velocity and the temperature of the solar wind. It also has magnetometer that gauges the strength and direction of the solar wind magnetic field. These can deliver information to the NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) about storm warnings up to one hour in advance. DSCOVR also aims to maintain the nation's real-time solar wind monitoring capabilities.

#DSCOVR provides a 15–60 min warning before a geomagnetic storm hits Earth. Data: https://t.co/Zjw1pMvl3E pic.twitter.com/Y9sRq1QVrh

— NOAA NCEI Ocean Geo (@NOAANCEIocngeo) August 2, 2016

DSCOVR is the upgrade of the Advanced Composition Explorer or ACE, the NOAA's old space weather satellite. It was launched in February 2015. It has a NASA camera, which is known EPIC that takes pictures of the planet Earth. This new satellite will also help scientists to do fundamental research in understanding the complex physics of the sun and of space weather. Kelly Korreck, a solar physicist from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory said that many people wanted to see the data from the DSCOVR team because they were talking about the basic wave-particle interactions and these very advanced plasma physics parameters, as noted by Undark.

NOAA also stated that with DSCOVR, they could deliver more accurate forecasts for how space weather could impact various parts in the world. Besides DSCOVR, NOAA also has another continued space weather program called "Space Weather Follow On" that will be launched by 2022.