The Sun is active
The Sun's surface is threaded with magnetic fields that twist, store energy, and occasionally snap. When they snap, they can launch billions of tons of charged plasma into space at hundreds to thousands of kilometers per second. These are coronal mass ejections -- CMEs. Some head toward Earth.
What can happen when one arrives
A CME that reaches Earth compresses and penetrates our magnetic shield. The downstream effects range from beautiful to destructive:
- Power grids -- geomagnetically induced currents can damage transformers and cause blackouts.
- Satellites -- radiation and surface charging degrade electronics and shorten lifespans.
- GPS & navigation -- ionospheric distortion can degrade positioning accuracy by meters.
- HF radio -- polar and trans-oceanic communications can go dark for hours.
- Aurora -- the same energy that causes problems also creates the northern and southern lights.
The warning gap
Most space weather systems today detect a CME after it has already launched -- typically by observing it in coronagraph imagery as it leaves the Sun. From that point, it takes roughly 1 to 4 days to reach Earth, but the transit time is uncertain and the severity is hard to estimate until the CME passes a sensor about a million miles from Earth. By then, you have maybe 30 to 60 minutes of confirmed warning.
Heliora works upstream of that. It monitors the magnetic conditions on the Sun that precede eruptions -- the buildup phase -- and issues threat assessments before a CME even launches. That turns hours of uncertainty into days of preparation.
How Heliora works
Heliora tracks a complete causal chain from the Sun's interior to ground-level effects on Earth:
- Subsurface flows-- Helioseismic data reveals magnetic structures forming below the Sun's surface before they emerge.
- Active region monitoring -- Once magnetic flux surfaces, Heliora tracks its rotation, complexity, and energy storage every 12 minutes.
- Coronal signatures-- Changes in the Sun's atmosphere confirm that an active region is approaching eruption.
- Eruption and transit -- If a CME launches, Heliora tracks it through the solar wind corridor toward Earth.
- Near-Earth detection -- Real-time solar wind data at L1 (the DSCOVR spacecraft) confirms arrival and refines the impact estimate.
- Ground truth -- Geomagnetic indices measure the actual effect on Earth, closing the loop.
Every layer feeds the next. Every assessment links back to the data behind it. Nothing is a black box.
See it in action
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