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Sophisticated ESA space weather tool under development

2 February 2007

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SEISOP - Space Environment Information System for Operations

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Space Weather data are vital to characterise solar activity and permit taking action to avoid damage to spacecraft in orbit.

This image shows actual SEISOP data showing excess high-energy particles coming from solar activity, superimposed against an image of the solar activity, which occurred in December 2003.

Credits: ESA

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The Sun unleashed a large (X-3 class) solar flare December 13, 2006 along with a coronal mass ejection (CME) that appears to be headed towards Earth. The source of these eruptions was the very active sunspot region 930. A shower of high-energy particles appeared as specks and white streaks on the imagers aboard SOHO, the primary watchdog for solar storms. The video clip from LASCO C2 coronagraph shows a CME emerging from behind the occulting disk and then almost immediately the imager is being struck by the particles (that travel at half the speed of light).

Credits: ESA/NASA

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