{"id":8228,"date":"2021-10-07T14:12:38","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T14:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1369174"},"modified":"2021-10-07T14:12:38","modified_gmt":"2021-10-07T14:12:38","slug":"predicting-the-weather-in-space-is-hard-but-this-new-satellite-could-make-it-easier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=8228","title":{"rendered":"Predicting the weather in space is hard but this new satellite could make it easier"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Australian-made space weather satellite CUAVA-1 was deployed into orbit from the International Space Station on Wednesday night<\/a>. Launched to the space station<\/a> in August aboard a SpaceX rocket<\/a>, a major focus of this shoebox-sized CubeSat is to study what radiation from the Sun does to Earth\u2019s atmosphere and electronic devices.<\/p>\n

Space weather<\/a> such as solar flares<\/a> and changes in the solar wind affects Earth\u2019s ionosphere (a layer of charged particles in the upper atmosphere). This in turn has an impact on long-distance radio communications<\/a> and the orbits of some satellites<\/a>, as well as creating fluctuations in the electromagnetic field that can wreak havoc with electronics in space and down to the ground.<\/p>\n

The new satellite is the first designed and built by the Australian Research Council Training Centre for Cubesats, UAVs, and their Applications (or CUAVA<\/a> for short). It carries payloads and technology demonstrators built by collaborators from the University of Sydney, Macquarie University, and UNSW-Sydney.<\/p>\n

One of CUAVA-1\u2019s aims is to help improve space weather forecasts, which are currently very limited. As well as its scientific mission, CUAVA-1 also represents a step towards the Australian Space Agency\u2019s goal of growing the local space industry by 20,000 jobs by 2030<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Satellites and space weather<\/h2>\n
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\"Exploded
<\/i><\/a>Exploded view of CUAVA-1 and its components and payloads. Tanned labels indicate Australian-made components. Xueliang Bai<\/figcaption>