U.S. Agencies Collaborate to Improve Space Weather Forecasts Amid Increasing Solar Activity

A recent powerful solar flare underscores the urgency of these efforts, as it caused widespread radio blackouts and is followed by a potentially disruptive coronal mass ejection.

Multiple U.S. government agencies have signed a Memorandum of Agreement for Space Weather Research-to-Operations-to-Research Collaboration to improve space weather forecasts and mitigate the effects of solar storms on critical infrastructure.
The agreement encourages agencies such as NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of the Air Force to work together to advance space weather forecasts.
Space weather events can disrupt life on Earth and pose dangers to spacecraft and astronauts in space, especially as space weather events are predicted to occur more frequently leading up to the peak of solar activity in 2025.
A huge solar flare, the strongest of the sun's 11-year solar cycle so far, caused a deep shortwave radio blackout across North and South America.
The solar flare is followed by a coronal mass ejection (CME) of solar material due to hit Earth's atmosphere, potentially causing power issues, satellite problems, further radio blackouts, and visible auroras as far south as Illinois and Oregon.