NOAA’s newest satellite, GOES-19, has just started sending back its first data from the EXIS instrument, and the results are nothing short of spectacular. This blog post delves into the incredible capabilities of EXIS and how it will help us better understand and prepare for the sun’s powerful outbursts.
Free the Mysteries of Solar Activity
The Extreme Ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors (EXIS) on GOES-19 are now collecting observations, and they’re already observing interesting activities from the sun.
This state-of-the-art camera can measure the extreme ultraviolet and soft X-ray radiation of the sun, track the solar flares that happen, and locate them on its surface. These monumental eruptions of energy can throw our entire planet out of whack — by mucking with radio communications, power grids, and even GPS navigation.
Having EXIS allows us to track this and communicate alerts of space-weather events like the one responsible for Saturday’s flight disruptions, hopefully preventing other bomb cyclone-like effects back here on Earth. NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center will use its data to issue alerts and warnings that will warn us about the potential impacts of approaching solar storms. ×
The Sun’s Screaming Wailing Flares
The complex energetics of solar flares are well manifested in the EXIS data, among other intriguing features. An X-class flare on September 14, 2024, newly visible from behind the limb (left) of the sun less than a day after GOES-19 went into operation.
Instead of a gradual increase and decrease in brightness, pulses were detected in the soft X-rays and extreme ultraviolet light by the EXIS sensors revealing that this flare was much more complex energetically. These detailed measurements provide a clearer understanding of the physics behind these enormous solar storms.
EXIS also observes the flare across several wavelengths of light emitted by the sun, helping researchers to track its development over time and better understand how features seen in one wavelength may relate to events seen in another. The information gathered will be united to get improved forecasts of solar storms and how they interact with the modern, technology-dependent world.
Conclusion
The launch of GOES-19 with its EXIS instrument is a critical step forward in our ongoing study of the sun and how it shaped the entire Earth. If all technical challenges and issues are resolved, EXIS could provide an inexorable amount of data on solar activity and flares, dramatically increasing our ability to predict and prepare for the consequences of space weather. The more humans perpetuate technology, using the space-based infrastructure in our daily lives, the more information we can acquire from EXIS will be critical to shielding our modern world from the sun’s powerful outbursts.
