{"id":35284,"date":"2014-10-23T13:34:48","date_gmt":"2014-10-23T13:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.massarate.ma\/?p=35284"},"modified":"2014-11-17T14:45:38","modified_gmt":"2014-11-17T14:45:38","slug":"uk-launches-space-weather-forecast-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.massarate.ma\/uk-launches-space-weather-forecast-centre.html","title":{"rendered":"UK launches space weather forecast centre"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The UK officially opened its first space weather forecasting centre this week.<\/p>\n
Funding for the\u00a0Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre<\/a>, based at the organisation\u2019s headquarters in Exeter, was\u00a0announced by the government late last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since May the centre has been operating 24\/7, ahead of its public launch on 8 October. As well as giving early warning of space weather threats to critical infrastructure, such as the National Grid, the Met Office now also\u00a0provides publicly-available forecasts<\/a>, published on its website.<\/p>\n \u2018Space weather\u2019 is a term which covers how radiation and high-energy particles, ejected from magnetic storms in the Sun, interact with Earth\u2019s magnetic field and impact terrestrial technology. Severe space weather can knock out satellite communications and disrupt global positioning systems (GPS) and power grids.<\/p>\n