I love Colorado's sunny days and summer storms.
S | Centennial, CO
S, WE Love COLORADO'S SUNNY DAYS AND SUMMER STORMS, TOO.
We're monitoring the sun to predict solar weather so we can be ready for sunny days, solar storms and everything in between.
Campus Location
BoulderWhen a solar flare erupts from the sun, a small fleet of scientific instruments designed and built at the University of Colorado Boulder serves as the first line of defense. These massive eruptions are detected before any other instruments in space and relayed to Earth in seconds.
In the summer of 2024, the final instrument in the Extreme Ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors (EXIS) program launched aboard the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-U (GOES-U), which was renamed GOES-19. This launch, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, marked the culmination of nearly 20 years of work by CU Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).
The new EXIS instrument, which looks a bit like a souped-up toaster oven, joins three nearly identical instruments already orbiting Earth. One hovers above the East Coast of the United States, another is above the West Coast, and the third sits in storage in space, waiting to be called into duty if a problem arises with one of the other satellites.
While the GOES program, a joint effort between NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), monitors events like hurricanes and storms, EXIS tracks space weather, including solar processes that can significantly impact Earth.
“If we want to understand the things that can affect our technology and safety on Earth, we need to look at the source, and that’s the sun,” said Dan Baker, director of LASP. He noted that LASP is proud of its decades-spanning contributions to the GOES program and is the only academic institution providing major hardware for the GOES-R series.
“LASP has consistently demonstrated the highest levels of success for the operational needs of NOAA and the U.S. government. LASP has been a model for designing, building, testing, and operating space instrumentation in an operational context,” Baker said.
For LASP scientist Frank Eparvier, the launch fulfilled a long-held dream sparked by witnessing the aurora as an undergraduate. He and his team developed EXIS, which includes an X-ray sensor (XRS) to detect early signs of solar flares. The data from EXIS provides crucial information for satellite operators and other stakeholders navigating space.
The Extreme Ultraviolet Sensor (EUVS), on the other hand, monitors fluctuations in the sun’s activity that affect Earth’s atmosphere and orbiting satellites.
NOAA scientists use data from both sensors to provide timely guidance to satellite operators and others, helping them navigate safely through space.
“EXIS really is providing an asset to the entire world,” Eparvier said.
Generational Project
Getting these instruments off the ground wasn’t easy. The LASP team began working on EXIS in 2005 and built all four instruments simultaneously. The first launched in 2016, followed by the others in 2018, 2022, and 2024. More than 100 engineers and scientists contributed to the project, including Phil Chamberlin, who started as a doctoral student. The team designed the instruments to withstand the harsh environment of geostationary orbit, over 22,000 miles from Earth, where radiation is intense.
In May 2024, EXIS detected solar flares that triggered auroras as far south as Florida. Eparvier and his colleagues were among the first on Earth to see them coming. “My wife and I went up to the Wyoming border and joined friends to take amazing pictures of the aurora,” he said, reminiscing about his journey from a curious student to a leader in space weather research.