A SPACECRAFT that will watch the Sun for flares that explode with the energy of a million hydrogen bombs is to be launched this month, with the ultimate aim of forecasting such violent “space weather”.

Solar B, a Japanese mission with extensive British involvement, will examine solar flares in unprecedented detail so that scientists can discover how they can be predicted.

Energy from such solar explosions can reach the Earth within ten minutes, where they can knock out satellites, electricity grids and radio communications.

The flares would also pose a grave hazard to astronauts on missions to the Moon and Mars, who would be exposed to life-threatening radiation as they are outside the protection of the Earth’s magnetic field.

Scientists have a good understanding of how solar flares occur, as a result of clashing magnetic fields on the Sun’s surface. However, they do not yet know how to predict when the flares will happen.

Solar B, to be launched on September 22, carries three instruments that eventually should provide enough information to make space weather forecasts possible.

The Nasa Stereo mission, to be launched next month, will monitor another kind of solar event. Coronal mass ejections, which send material into space, will be measured from two probes, providing three dimensional images of the Sun that will allow scientists to predict when these streams of matter will reach Earth.

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