A Solar Particle Event occurs when the sun releases a surge of highly energetic charged particles, primarily protons, often following a solar flare or coronal mass ejection. These events pose a severe radiation hazard to astronauts outside low Earth orbit and can degrade solar panels, blind star trackers, and cause single-event upsets in spacecraft electronics.
Heard on the job
We need to put the observatory into safe mode; space weather is predicting a major SPE in the next four hours.
Also heard as
- solar proton event