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.
South Korea conducted the final live-fire drill with its F-4 Phantom II and AGM-142 missiles before retiring the two defense assets in June, amid the largest U.S.-Korea Aerial Exercise in full swing.