Advancing our capacity to predict ‘Solar energetic particle’ (SEP) events is essential to the smooth running of human spaceflights beyond Earth. New space weather prediction tools developed under the HESPERIA project have reached a milestone, notably by enabling earlier prediction of ‘Ground level enhancement’ (GLE) events — which pose severe radiation hazards to astronauts and tend to disrupt airline communication.
HESPERIA (High Energy Solar Particle Events foRecastIng and Analysis) had three core objectives: building new forecasting tools based on empirical forecasting models UMASEP and REleASE; advancing scientific understanding of the physical mechanisms leading to SEPs; and exploring the possibility of incorporating its results into future space weather services.
Further details: Novel prediction tools for SEP events