UC Berkeley studies space weather through NASA triple satellite launch

UC Berkeley studies space weather through NASA triple satellite launch

UC Berkeley studies space weather through NASA triple satellite launch.

BERKELEY, Calif. - NASA on Wednesday launched three satellites into space, and one of them was controlled by scientists from UC Berkeley. 

The three satellites are managed by NASA, NOAA meteorologists and the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory at Cal. 

The Carruthers satellite is meant to study the Earth's exosphere, a fancy word to describe the outermost layer of the Earth's atmosphere.

Scientists want to look at that because they want to know more about how it reacts to sunlight and other solar events, which is called "space weather."

That exosphere actually creates a glowing halo in space and when scientists first discovered it, they immediately wanted to know more.

That was back in 1972 during the Apollo 16 mission when scientists put a UV camera on the moon.

"We're launching Artmeis 2 next year," said Nasa deputy associate administrator Casey Swails. "We're building a sustainable presence on the moon, and then we're going to send astronauts to Mars, so when we land those astronauts on the moon, land them on Mars. It will be missions like this that help contribute to making sure they got there safely." 

Scientists say the exosphere takes the brunt of sunlight before it reaches Earth and filters the intensity of the light before it hits orbiting satellites and the inner workings of the Earth's atmosphere.

Scientists say this can affect how our everyday technology works, like GPS tracking or power grids, and of course, future missions, involving astronauts to the moon and Mars.