January 2019
Saving humanity – is space up to the job?
...sophisticated electronic infrastructure that is highly vulnerable to cosmic dangers. Solar storms and especially coronal mass ejections (CMEs) can destroy electrical grids, telecommunication systems, pipelines, industrial control systems that run our...
June 2014
In thrall to a star: understanding the Sun will help us understand our own climate and environment
... flights. Superstorms Over the course of an 11-year solar cycle the Sun will produce thousands of flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) with a wide spectrum of energies. Occasionally, however, an extremely large solar event occurs to remind us how...
June 2021
The next ‘unthinkable’ – global disruption from a solar storm
... electromagnetic radiation (called flares) and eruptions of material known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), accompanied by solar energetic particles (SEPs). Because of the interaction of CMEs with the Earth’s magnetic field, a geomagnetic storm can...
December 2014
Ready for Mars? From Mars-500 to zero-gravity medical issues
... and its protective magnetic field, so the astronauts’ exposure to dangerous ionising radiation will occur. Solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and cosmic rays will threaten the astronauts’ acceptable radiation level, with the increased risk...
January 2019
Engineering six-hour solar eclipses with formation flying
...radius where the solar wind is accelerated and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are initiated. But this part of the... corresponding Occulter Spacecraft (OSC) which includes the occulting disk. OSC wet mass is about 250 kg, with a size of about 1.4 m x 1.1...
April 2020
Protecting against the dangers of space radiation
...perhaps may ultimately help us to find ways to imitate those responses in humans. A coronal mass ejection (CME) erupted into space on 28-29 April 2015. CMEs are sometimes followed by a wave of high-energy particles that can be dangerous to astronauts...
