NOAA's DSCOVR satellite will soon travel to the farthest point of Earth's orbit where it will observe space weather for both the Earth and the sun.
Although most satellites orbit close to the Earth, the DSCOVR's point in orbit, called L1, will give it an unfettered view of space weather. L1 lies about 1 million miles away from Earth.
DSCOVR will search for coronal mass ejections, which occur when the sun spits out a stream of particles and magnetic fields. These events often affect power grids, communications and other satellites. DSCOVR will give advance warning of such events so that people on Earth can prepare accordingly.
"From this position, DSCOVR will typically be able to provide 15 to 60 minute warning time before the surge of particles and magnetic field, known as a coronal mass ejection (or CME), associated with a geomagnetic storm reaches Earth," writes the NOAA on its website. "DSCOVR data will also be used to improve predictions of geomagnetic storm impact locations."
DSCOVR will also collect measurements of radiation reflected from and emitted by the Earth. Climate scientists can use these measurements to calculate just how much radiation is the result of human interference, as well as how much radiation occurs naturally.
Because of its unique position, the satellite will also get unprecedented photos of Earth from space. Its Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) will capture the Earth in a single photo, something a satellite has never done before. However, because of the way EPIC operates, it will also get atmospheric data about the planet.
"Unlike personal cameras, EPIC will take images in 10 very narrow wavelength ranges," says Adam Szabo, DSCOVR project scientist. "Combining these different wavelength images allows the determination of physical quantities like ozone, aerosols, dust and volcanic ash, cloud height, or vegetation cover."
DSCOVR has an interesting history. NASA proposed the idea behind it, then called Triana, way back in 1998, but officials put the project on hold during President George W. Bush's administration. That administration stated that the mission wasn't peer-reviewed and that its "added science may not represent the best expenditure of NASA's limited science funding."
Although the National Academy of Sciences disagreed with that decision, the satellite remained in storage until 2008. NASA renamed the project DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory). However, it wasn't until 2013 that NASA announced that DSCOVR would finally launch.
Now, that launch is ready to happen. DSCOVR will travel to space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center managing the mission.
