The Solar Mass Ejection Imager experiment, orbiting the Earth about 50 miles up aboard the Coriolis satellite, has photographed more than 200 “coronal mass ejections,” since it became operational in January 2003, according to officials at Air Force Research Lab’s Space Vehicles Directorate at Kirtland AFB, N.M. The object of the experiment is to aid forecasters as they try to anticipate communication disruptions caused by destructive clouds of solar particles impacting the Earth. The SMEI has demonstrated a 30 percent improvement in the accuracy of forecasts.
The U.S. supports “a stronger and more capable” European defense, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said during an Oct. 22 press conference in Brussels—but that defense should not duplicate the functions and capabilities of the NATO alliance.