SwRI awarded $26 million to develop NOAA magnetometers

December 17, 2024 - NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently awarded Southwest Research Institute a $26 million contract to develop magnetometers for NOAA's Space Weather Next (SW Next) program for two missions to be launched in 2029 and 2032. The magnetometers will measure the interplanetary magnetic field carried by the solar wind.

"The instruments provide critical data to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center which issues forecasts, warnings and alerts that help mitigate space weather impacts," said Dr. Roy Torbert, a program director in SwRI's Earth, Oceans, and Space office at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) in Durham, N.H., and principal investigator of the magnetometer. "Space weather refers to the variable conditions on the Sun and in space that can influence the performance of technology we use on Earth, such as electrical power grids, and disrupt satellite-based communication and navigation systems."

The magnetometers will be deployed on satellites that will orbit the Sun at approximately 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth at a point known as Lagrange 1, or L1. Gravitational forces from the Sun and the Earth hold objects at L1 in a stable position and offer an uninterrupted view of the Sun. The instrument will make local measurements of the magnetic field conveyed by the solar wind as it blows towards the Earth.

"The instrument, known as SW-MAG, provides key data about the solar wind as it approaches Earth," Torbert said. "The data will be available to the science community but are targeted to the Space Weather Prediction Center."

SwRI will work with UNH to design, develop, fabricate, integrate, calibrate and evaluate the magnetometer instrument. The team will also support launch and on-orbit check-out of the instrument, supply and maintain the instrument's ground support equipment, and support NOAA's mission operations center as needed. SW-MAG includes two three-axis magnetometers and associated electronics to measure the vector interplanetary magnetic field.

"The solar wind magnetic field controls the processes that transfer energy and particles into the Earth's magnetosphere and often initiates geomagnetic storms," Torbert said. "These disturbances can create spectacular auroras but can also shut down electrical power grids and disrupt satellite-based communication and navigation systems."

NASA is planning to launch the SW NEXT as a follow-up to the SWFO-L1 mission, which also will have an SwRI-developed magnetometer in its payload, in 2025 as a rideshare with the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) vehicle. SwRI also plays a role in that mission, managing the payload and payload systems engineering for IMAP, which will sample, analyze and map particles streaming to Earth from the edge of interstellar space.

NASA and NOAA oversee the development, launch, testing, and operation of all the satellites in the Lagrange 1 Series project. NOAA is the program owner providing the requirements and funding along with managing the program, operations, data products, and dissemination to users. NASA and its collaborators will develop and build the instruments and spacecraft and provide launch services on behalf of NOAA. SwRI will work with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Kennedy Space Center to develop the magnetometers.

For more information, visit Heliophysics or contact Deb Schmid, +1 210 522 2254, Communications Department, Southwest Research Institute, 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, TX 78238-5166.