Solar storm warning: New tool could help protect astronauts

This composite image shows a coronal mass ejection — a huge eruption of solar plasma — as seen from two space-based solar observatories and one ground-based instrument. The image in gold is from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft; the image in red is from the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory; and the image in blue is from the Manua Loa Solar Observatory’s K-Cor coronagraph. (Image/NASA/ESA/SOHO/SDO/Joy Ng and MLSO/K-Cor)

NASA scientists have developed a new technique that could improve space-weather forecasts and help protect astronauts from potentially dangerous solar storms.

Earth's sun is an active star that repeatedly unleashes powerful flares and huge eruptions of solar plasma known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). These dramatic events can send fast-moving solar energetic particles, or SEPs, streaming toward Earth. While the planet's magnetic field and atmosphere serve as a protective shield, astronauts in low-Earth orbit are potentially susceptible to the harmful effects of such solar outbursts.

Researchers who developed the new technique used an instrument called a coronagraph, which blocks the sun's bright light and allows astronomers to see what's going on in the sun's corona, or outer atmosphere. With this tool, scientists from NASA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Colorado found a way to detect SEP activity tens of minutes earlier than current forecasting techniques allow, which will ultimately help protect astronauts in space, NASA officials said a statement.