Airbus to build satellite that will predict the northern lights

The European Space Agency has hired Airbus to build a space satellite. It will forecast solar storms like the one that caused the biggest northern lights display in over 20 years this May. The satellite, dubbed Vigil, will sit at the so-called L5 point, some 150 million kilometres from Earth. From here it will view the Sun from the side, observing activity on the surface of the Sun four to five days before it becomes visible from Earth “Vigil will drastically improve both the lead time of space weather warnings as well as their level of detail from its unique…

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