Universe Today
Our Sun is the very reason life exists on our small, blue planet. It provides solar radiation that warms the planet and ignites the intricate biochemical processes like photosynthesis producing oxygen for life to breathe. However, while the Sun is known for giving life, it can also potentially take it away with its solar flares, geomagnetic storms, and solar radiation storms, all of which are referred to as space weather. But how can space weather be forecasted so industries can better prepare and protect their assets, including Earth infrastructure, satellites, and even human safety?
Now, a team of researchers from the Imperial College London might be one step closer to answering this conundrum as they introduced the HENON (Heliospheric pioneer for solar and interplanetary threats defence) CubeSat with the goal of improving space weather forecasting. HENON was introduced during the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting, which took place from July 20-24, 2026, along with its key instrument, MAGIC (MAGnetometer from Imperial College).
As noted, the primary motivation behind HENON is to improve space weather forecasts, specifically improving upon advance warning time, which currently only allows between 15 to 60 minutes of notice before a space weather event strikes Earth. Another goal of HENON is to improve upon identifying the severity of the incoming space weather event, which requires measuring the solar magnetic field.
The reason for the limited warning time is because current space weather satellites are positioned at the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point, or about 1.5 million kilometers (932,000 miles) from Earth. This is where HENON’s concept stands out, as the CubeSat is slated to be orbiting 15 million kilometers (9.32 million miles) from Earth, or 10 times farther than current spacecraft. As a result, the researchers estimate that this could improve the advance warning time from 15 hours to up to 3 hours.
"The success of HENON will be a step change in our ability to forecast space weather and paves the way for a future operational space weather mission, SHIELD, that is being developed by the European Space Agency, [ESA]" said Dr. Jonathan Eastwood, who is a Professor of Space Physics in the Department of Physics (Blackett Laboratory) at Imperial College London and lead author of the study.
The Carrington Event is arguably the most intense space weather event in the technological age, occurring from September 1-2, 1859, and resulting in global auroras and global disruptions to telegraph systems. However, several space weather events have occurred since then, though not as powerful, including the “Jennifer Gannon” superstorm from May 7-11, 2024, which was designated as a G5 (extreme) storm, and an S4 (severe) solar radiation storm occurring on January 19, 2026.
For context, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has a rating system called the Space Weather Scales comprised of G-, S-, and R- scales, indicating Geomagnetic Storms, Solar Radiation Storms, and Radio Blackouts, respectively, all rated from 1 (Minor) to 5 (Extreme).
As Dr. Eastwood mentions, the future ESA SHIELD mission (which is its direct name and no formal acronym) is slated to continue improving space weather forecasting based on the work of HENON. This is because SHIELD is slated to be an upscaled version of HENON, positioned at about 15 million kilometers from Earth and providing a potential continuous advance warning of incoming space weather events up to the estimated three hours that HENON is expected to produce.
How will the HENON CubeSat mission deliver more accurate space weather predictions in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
