NASA Releases 16 Years of Space Weather Data

[PPI Brian]

For years, the satellites of America's Global Positioning System have been carrying sensors that measure the weather in space.

The information has been kept by the military, which manages the satellites, because solar storms and other space weather can damage satellites.

Today, as the result of an executive order signed last October, the government released 16 years of that space weather data to the public for the first time.

"It's really an unprecedented amount of information," explained Marc Kippen, a program manager at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where the sensors were designed.

Twenty-three of the more than 30 U.S. military GPS satellites carry space-weather sensors, which measure charged particles in Earth's magnetic field and together provide 92 measurements every day of the radiation around the planet.

Space weather is all about radiation. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration publishes regular updates on three types of space weather: geomagnetic storms, solar radiation storms and radio blackouts. All three can disrupt satellite operations and distort navigation systems.

But the raw data from the satellites has not been made public. Within the military "there's a general hesitancy to broadcast even fairly innocuous things out to the broad community," Kippen told the journal Science.

An executive order signed by President Obama changed that, requiring the information to be released on the grounds that space weather events have the potential to cause catastrophes down on Earth, meaning the information is relevant to the broader public.

This may help with PPI's ongoing studies of space weather and paranormal activity. Here's the link:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/30/512492059/government-releases-16-years-of-data-about-solar-weather