NOAA GOES-R Satellite: Instrument package to assess space weather ready for delivery

A multimillion dollar University of Colorado Boulder instrument package to study space weather has passed its pre-installation testing and is ready to be incorporated onto a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite for a 2015 launch.

Designed and built by CU's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, the instrument suite known as the Extreme Ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors (EXIS), is the first of four identical packages that will fly on four NOAA weather satellites slated for launch beginning in 2015.

EXIS consists of an Extreme Ultraviolet Sensor (EUVS), an X-Ray sensor (XRS) and a combined EUVS/XRS electronics box (EXEB) to control subsystems and to do command and data handling interface with the GOES-R spacecraft. (Courtesy LASP)

CU-Boulder's EXIS will measure energy output from the sun that can affect satellite operations, telecommunications, GPS navigation and power grids on Earth as part of NOAA's next generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES-R).

NASA issued the contract with CU-Boulder on behalf of NOAA to design, build, test, deliver and scientifically support the four instrument packages for roughly $95 million, said LASP Senior Research Scientist Frank Eparvier, principal investigator on the project.

The EXIS instrument package will be delivered to Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. in Littleton, Colo., for installation on the spacecraft in the coming months.

"We are excited because we developed and built all new technology for the EXIS instrument package for the GOES-R satellite," said Eparvier.

"We already have a close working relationship with NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, and these extremely sensitive instruments should help scientists better understand solar events and help to mitigate the effects of space weather on Earth."

EXIS consists of two LASP instruments, including XRS, an X-ray sensor that can determine the strength of solar flares and provide rapid alerts to scientists, said Eparvier.

Large solar flares, equivalent to the explosion of millions of atomic bombs, can trigger "proton events" that send charged atomic particles flying off the sun and into Earth's atmosphere in just minutes.

They can damage satellites, trigger radio blackouts and even threaten the health of astronauts by penetrating spacecraft shielding, he said.