The Solar Mass Ejection Imager experiment, orbiting the Earth about 50 miles up aboard the Coriolis satellite, has photographed more than 200 “coronal mass ejections,” since it became operational in January 2003, according to officials at Air Force Research Lab’s Space Vehicles Directorate at Kirtland AFB, N.M. The object of the experiment is to aid forecasters as they try to anticipate communication disruptions caused by destructive clouds of solar particles impacting the Earth. The SMEI has demonstrated a 30 percent improvement in the accuracy of forecasts.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.