Understanding space weather: The growing threat to technology and infrastructure
Shreeaa Rathi | TIMESOFINDIA.COM | Aug 01, 2025, 21:23 IST
( Image credit : TIL Creatives )
As our reliance on technology grows, so does the threat from space weather. Solar storms can wreak havoc on power grids and disrupt satellite operations. Enter the SWIFT satellite project, designed to enhance our forecasting of solar events.
Space weather, variations in the space environment between the Sun and Earth, poses a growing threat to technologies and infrastructure, including electric grids, aviation, telecommunications, and space-based assets. Interplanetary coronal mass ejections, bundles of magnetic fields and particles from the Sun, can cause geomagnetic storms that disrupt satellite operations, electric grids, and expose astronauts to radiation. The SWIFT satellite constellation is being developed to predict these events more accurately and earlier, using a solar sail propulsion system to reach a unique orbit beyond the L1 Lagrange point. This would increase warning times for potentially dangerous space weather events.
Space weather encompasses any variations in the space environment between the Sun and Earth. One common type of space weather event is called an interplanetary coronal mass ejection.
Commercial and military interests are increasingly vulnerable to space weather. Space tourism, satellite networks, resource extraction from the Moon and asteroids, and military operations all rely on space-based infrastructure.
Satellites provide essential capabilities for military communication, surveillance, navigation and intelligence. Extreme space weather events pose a greater threat as countries such as the U.S. grow to depend on infrastructure in space.
Today, space weather threatens up to US$2.7 trillion in assets globally.
Historical events demonstrate the potential impact of extreme space weather. In September 1859, the Carrington event caused fires in North America and Europe by supercharging telegraph lines. In August 1972, another Carrington-like event nearly struck astronauts orbiting the Moon. More recently, in February 2022, SpaceX lost 39 of its 49 newly launched Starlink satellites because of a moderate space weather event.
Space weather services rely on satellites that monitor the solar wind. Scientists compare these observations with historical records to predict space weather and explore how the Earth may respond to the observed changes in the solar wind.
Earth’s magnetic field naturally protects living things and Earth-orbiting satellites from most adverse effects of space weather. However, extreme space weather events may compress – or in some cases, peel back – the Earth’s magnetic shield.
Most satellites that continuously monitor Earth-bound space weather orbit relatively close to the planet. Some satellites are positioned in low Earth orbit, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) above Earth’s surface, while others are in geosynchronous orbit, approximately 25,000 miles (40,000 km) away.
The U.S., the European Space Agency and India all operate space weather monitoring satellites positioned around the L1 Lagrange point – nearly 900,000 miles (1,450,000 km) from Earth. From this vantage point, space weather monitors can provide up to 40 minutes of advance warning for incoming solar events.
Increasing the warning time beyond 40 minutes would help various stakeholders prepare for extreme space weather events. Satellite operators, electric grid planners, flight directors, astronauts and Space Force officers could benefit.
For instance, during geomagnetic storms, the atmosphere heats up and expands, increasing drag on satellites in low Earth orbit. With enough advance warning, operators can update their drag calculations to prevent satellites from descending and burning up during these events.
Airlines could change their routes to avoid exposing passengers and staff to high radiation doses during geomagnetic storms. Astronauts on the way to or working on the Moon or Mars could be alerted in advance to take cover.
The Space Weather Investigation Frontier (SWIFT) is a new space weather satellite constellation under development. SWIFT will, for the first time, place a space weather monitor beyond the L1 point, at 1.3 million miles (2.1 million kilometers) from Earth.
This distance would allow scientists to inform decision-makers of any Earth-bound space weather events up to nearly 60 minutes before arrival.
Satellites with traditional chemical and electric propulsion systems cannot maintain an orbit at that location for long. This is because they would need to continuously burn fuel to counteract the Sun’s gravitational pull.
SWIFT would use a fuelless propulsion system called a solar sail to reach its orbit.
"A solar sail is a hair-thin reflective surface – simulating a very thin mirror – that spans about a third of a football field."
It balances the force of light particles coming from the Sun, which pushes it away, with the Sun’s gravity, which pulls it inward.
"While a sailboat harnesses the lift created by wind flowing over its curved sails to move across water , a solar sail uses the momentum of photons from sunlight, reflected off its large, shiny sail, to propel a spacecraft through space."
Both the sailboat and solar sail exploit the transfer of energy from their respective environments to drive motion without relying on traditional propellants.
A solar sail could enable SWIFT to enter an otherwise unstable sub-L1 orbit without the risk of running out of fuel.
NASA successfully launched its first solar sail in 2010. That same year, the Japanese Space Agency launched a larger solar sail mission, IKAROS.
The SWIFT team’s solar sail demonstration mission, Solar Cruiser, will be equipped with a much larger sail. It will have area of 17,793 ft 2 (1,653 m 2 ) and launch as early as 2029.
The biggest challenge to overcome will be deploying the sail once in space and using it to guide the satellite along its orbital path.
If successful, Solar Cruiser will pave the way for SWIFT’s constellation of four satellites. The constellation would include one satellite equipped with sail propulsion, set to be placed in an orbit beyond L1, and three smaller satellites with chemical propulsion in orbit at the L1 Lagrange point.
The satellites will be indefinitely parked at and beyond L1, collecting data in the solar wind without interruption. Each of the four satellites can observe the solar wind from different locations, helping scientists better predict how it may evolve before reaching Earth.
As modern life depends more on space infrastructure, continuing to invest in space weather prediction can protect both space- and ground-based technologies.
Space weather encompasses any variations in the space environment between the Sun and Earth. One common type of space weather event is called an interplanetary coronal mass ejection.
Commercial and military interests are increasingly vulnerable to space weather. Space tourism, satellite networks, resource extraction from the Moon and asteroids, and military operations all rely on space-based infrastructure.
Satellites provide essential capabilities for military communication, surveillance, navigation and intelligence. Extreme space weather events pose a greater threat as countries such as the U.S. grow to depend on infrastructure in space.
Today, space weather threatens up to US$2.7 trillion in assets globally.
Historical events demonstrate the potential impact of extreme space weather. In September 1859, the Carrington event caused fires in North America and Europe by supercharging telegraph lines. In August 1972, another Carrington-like event nearly struck astronauts orbiting the Moon. More recently, in February 2022, SpaceX lost 39 of its 49 newly launched Starlink satellites because of a moderate space weather event.
Space weather services rely on satellites that monitor the solar wind. Scientists compare these observations with historical records to predict space weather and explore how the Earth may respond to the observed changes in the solar wind.
Earth’s magnetic field naturally protects living things and Earth-orbiting satellites from most adverse effects of space weather. However, extreme space weather events may compress – or in some cases, peel back – the Earth’s magnetic shield.
Most satellites that continuously monitor Earth-bound space weather orbit relatively close to the planet. Some satellites are positioned in low Earth orbit, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) above Earth’s surface, while others are in geosynchronous orbit, approximately 25,000 miles (40,000 km) away.
The U.S., the European Space Agency and India all operate space weather monitoring satellites positioned around the L1 Lagrange point – nearly 900,000 miles (1,450,000 km) from Earth. From this vantage point, space weather monitors can provide up to 40 minutes of advance warning for incoming solar events.
Increasing the warning time beyond 40 minutes would help various stakeholders prepare for extreme space weather events. Satellite operators, electric grid planners, flight directors, astronauts and Space Force officers could benefit.
For instance, during geomagnetic storms, the atmosphere heats up and expands, increasing drag on satellites in low Earth orbit. With enough advance warning, operators can update their drag calculations to prevent satellites from descending and burning up during these events.
Airlines could change their routes to avoid exposing passengers and staff to high radiation doses during geomagnetic storms. Astronauts on the way to or working on the Moon or Mars could be alerted in advance to take cover.
The Space Weather Investigation Frontier (SWIFT) is a new space weather satellite constellation under development. SWIFT will, for the first time, place a space weather monitor beyond the L1 point, at 1.3 million miles (2.1 million kilometers) from Earth.
This distance would allow scientists to inform decision-makers of any Earth-bound space weather events up to nearly 60 minutes before arrival.
Satellites with traditional chemical and electric propulsion systems cannot maintain an orbit at that location for long. This is because they would need to continuously burn fuel to counteract the Sun’s gravitational pull.
SWIFT would use a fuelless propulsion system called a solar sail to reach its orbit.
"A solar sail is a hair-thin reflective surface – simulating a very thin mirror – that spans about a third of a football field."
It balances the force of light particles coming from the Sun, which pushes it away, with the Sun’s gravity, which pulls it inward.
"While a sailboat harnesses the lift created by wind flowing over its curved sails to move across water , a solar sail uses the momentum of photons from sunlight, reflected off its large, shiny sail, to propel a spacecraft through space."
Both the sailboat and solar sail exploit the transfer of energy from their respective environments to drive motion without relying on traditional propellants.
A solar sail could enable SWIFT to enter an otherwise unstable sub-L1 orbit without the risk of running out of fuel.
NASA successfully launched its first solar sail in 2010. That same year, the Japanese Space Agency launched a larger solar sail mission, IKAROS.
The SWIFT team’s solar sail demonstration mission, Solar Cruiser, will be equipped with a much larger sail. It will have area of 17,793 ft 2 (1,653 m 2 ) and launch as early as 2029.
The biggest challenge to overcome will be deploying the sail once in space and using it to guide the satellite along its orbital path.
If successful, Solar Cruiser will pave the way for SWIFT’s constellation of four satellites. The constellation would include one satellite equipped with sail propulsion, set to be placed in an orbit beyond L1, and three smaller satellites with chemical propulsion in orbit at the L1 Lagrange point.
The satellites will be indefinitely parked at and beyond L1, collecting data in the solar wind without interruption. Each of the four satellites can observe the solar wind from different locations, helping scientists better predict how it may evolve before reaching Earth.
As modern life depends more on space infrastructure, continuing to invest in space weather prediction can protect both space- and ground-based technologies.