UNH to receive $24 million to build space weather sensors
Researchers at the University of New Hampshire, a New England Council member, have been awarded $24 million to help build sensors that track the weather in outer space and warn of dangers.
The sensors will monitor solar wind, a stream of charged particles flowing out of the sun that can interfere with the electric grid, satellites, and flight paths. Toni Galvin, a research professor working on the project, says solar wind is continuous, but its composition constantly changes.
“When a solar wind with a certain structure to it, like a coronal mass ejection or some such hits the Earth’s magnetosphere, then it can cause, let’s just say, a ‘jangling’ of that magnetic field around the Earth,” Galvin said.
The sensors being built by the UNH team are meant to help warn if the solar wind could be dangerous. UNH researchers will work with NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory to build two sensors over nine years.
The New England Council congratulates the University of New Hampshire on this opportunity to develop innovative space technology.
Read more via the NH Business Review.