New telescope set to measure extreme space weather

The Surrey team is developing prototypes for a new High Energy Proton Telescope (HEPTEL), which aims to measure the radiation caused by solar flares in space before it reaches the Earth’s atmosphere.

According to the scientists, HEPTEL will monitor extremely high energy protons, the dominant particle type from solar events which can stop electronic devices from working properly once they penetrate the atmosphere. Systems on aircraft are said to be more at risk due to their altitude.

In a statement, Professor Keith Ryden, director of Surrey Space Centre and the project lead, said: “Extremely high energy solar proton events occur on average once a year but do vary a lot in intensity; the most severe could have a significant impact on avionics, potentially leading to increased pilot workload.

“Given the ever-increasing quantity of electronics on-board, future aircraft will need to be designed to cope with intense events, so we need research like this to enable better modelling and higher levels of understanding.”