NOAA’s SOLAR-1 satellite has become fully operational, marking a significant advance in global space weather forecasting capability.
The satellite, which launched on September 24, 2025, is positioned at the L1 Lagrange point approximately 1,600,000km from Earth, where it continuously observes the sun and its outer atmosphere. It provides a 24/7 near-real-time data stream to space weather forecasting centers around the world, including the Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre.
Met Office space weather manager Simon Machin said, “SOLAR-1 provides a real step-change in observations of events emanating from the sun and will vastly enhance our ability to forecast impactful space weather. As one of a handful of 24/7 space weather forecasting centers in the world, we’ll benefit from the improved availability of data from the satellite, with imagery from the coronagraph available around every 30 minutes, while onboard data collection measuring solar wind will be available around every five minutes.”
Clinton Wallace, director of NOAA‘s Space Weather Prediction Center, said the satellite would give operators and agencies more time to respond to solar events. “It gives time for power grid operators to prepare, more time for satellite operators to protect assets, more time for aviation and national security partners to understand risk, and more time for human spaceflight teams to protect astronauts and missions. SOLAR-1 helps turn observations of the sun into practical decisions that protect lives, infrastructure, the economy and national security.”
The satellite carries four key instruments: a coronagraph for imaging coronal mass ejections as they leave the sun; a solar wind plasma sensor measuring charged particle streams; a suprathermal ion sensor detecting high-energy particles that often precede major solar storms; and a magnetometer tracking changes in the solar wind’s magnetic field.
SOLAR-1 builds on observational continuity from L1 missions dating back to the 1990s, several of which have operated well beyond their original design lifetimes.
The European Space Agency’s Vigil mission – planned for launch in the early 2030s – will place a satellite at the L5 position with a side-on view of the sun, becoming Europe’s first operational space weather satellite.
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