Space weather activities need international cooperation: NASA scientist

(Image for representational purposes only)

Udhgamandalam: Understanding and predicting space weather needs international cooperation and no single country could observe the Sun and interplanetary medium for 24 hours a day, a senior NASA scientist said today.

"No single country can afford the very expensive satellites and instruments that can monitor the entire Sun or the entire space around the Earth simultaneously and you never know where latest theoretical breakthroughs will occur," Judith T Kerpen, In-charge of Space Weather Lab, Goddard Space Flight Centre, NASA, said here.

Addressing scientists at Radio Astronomy Centre (RAC), Judith expressed pleasure that the Indian and US space agencies recently signed a MoU that will make it much easier to collaborate and exchange important information and build space missions.

The Radio Astronomy Centre is part of the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research which is funded by the Government of India through the Department of Atomic Energy.

On Space Weather, she said that it was "conditions in space that affect Earth, other planets, humans and our technological systems."

"Space Weather starts at the Sun, but travels with and through the thin gases between the planets interacting magnetic fields and particles, waves. It can be very violent, in the case of solar eruptions, or more quiet, in the case of the emissions from the non-erupting Sun," Judith said.

"To understand the causes and consequences fully, we need more observations, theory, and modeling and this is where India is playing a critical role, and where you young people can help", she said.

India has a long and impressive history of accomplishments in research, with strong government support and there were many places where fundamental research in space weather was carried out, she said.