NASA, NOAA ready to ask industry for satellite instruments to monitor solar radiation and space weather

GREENBELT, Md. – U.S. space weather researchers are making plans to approach industry later this year for a project to design and build two space-based instruments to monitor solar activity that threatens to disrupt RF and microwave systems like radio and satellite communications, and navigation systems.

Officials of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Md., and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Washington plan to issue a solicitation for the Space weather Observations at Lagrange 1 (SOL) X-Ray Irradiance Sensor (XRIS) instrument.

Solar radiation

The XRIS instrument will measure the energy from solar radiation to detect changes in solar activity like solar flares, which will help predict solar energetic particle events that could penetrate the Earth’s magnetic field.

The instrument will monitor X-ray flares that can cause changes in the Earth’s ionosphere such as strong radio bursts that may interfere with radio frequencies and cause problems for satellite communications and navigation systems.

Related: Johns Hopkins selected to make Suprathermal Ion Sensors for NOAA space weather program

SOL is a high-priority joint undertaking by NASA and NOAA. The two SOL Observatories will provide NOAA with the continuity of solar wind data, coronal mass ejection (CME) imagery, and the second observatory will provide X-ray irradiance data from the XRIS instrument.

SOL will procure two XRIS satellite instruments that will provide NOAA with the continuity and resilience of space weather observations for the X-ray irradiance.

Space weather

The X-ray irradiance measurement is a high availability (HAP) product, which is one of the National Weather Service’s highest priorities for space weather observations. The continuation of these observations is essential for space weather predictions to protect critical infrastructure like aviation, commerce, energy, space exploration, and defense.

XRIS will fly on the second observatory, SOL-B, which is set for launch in October 2032. NASA and NOAA officials plan to ask industry to integrate, test, calibrate, evaluate, support launch, perform on-orbit check-out of the X-Ray irradiance sensors, supply and maintain the instrument ground support equipment, ground processing algorithms, and support the mission operations center at the NOAA satellite operations facility.

Related: NASA extends its search for ion sensor tech to observe space weather

Contract work should extend through January 2034. Work will include operational handover to NOAA of the final instrument. The handover to NOAA will happen after successful launch, post launch evaluation, calibration, data validation, and on-orbit anomaly investigations. The first flight model should be delivered by June 2029 and the second by December 2029.

The anticipated release date of the draft solicitation is sometime this spring, while the final solicitation is expected by this June. Contract award date is expected in January 2026.

Companies interested should email questions, concerns, and their intent to submit an offer to NASA's Suzanne Sierra at [email protected]. More information is online at https://sam.gov/opp/f2d5670b4bf34e1697add00ef45781a4/view.