With key space weather satellites expected to fail before U.S. and European agencies launch replacements, "small satellites may be the only way of averting a bleak future," said Daniel Baker, director of the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. Many of the instruments the U.S. relies on to monitor solar flares, coronal mass ejections and other phenomena that pose a threat to satellites in orbit and technology on the ground are well beyond their anticipated life spans. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is sending new instruments into orbit on its latest generation of geostationary weather satellites but other updates to the space weather constellation are likely to fly years after current instruments fail. That's prompting government, industry and academic experts to consider how cubesats and small satellites could help.
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