An Era Defining Mission: NASA's Solar Probe Plus to Predict Solar Storms

Dr Robert Wicks, UCL Institute for Risk & Disaster Reduction, explains to BBC World News viewers how NASA's next solar mission will help aid scientific understanding of solar activity and enable astronomers to better predict solar storms.

Solar flares launch radiation and matter outwards compressing the earth's magnetic field and can cause, amongst other things, radio interference and power failures.

The spacecraft, the Parker Solar Probe, due to be launched in the summer of 2018, will travel directly into the atmosphere of the sun.  It will be the most extreme environment into which a probe has ever been sent. The hope is that through this mission, many pivotal scientific questions can be answered, such as why solar winds are so fast, why is it so hot, and how we can better predict solar storms to prevent or mitigate damage to Earth-based and near-Earth infrastructure.

You can see Dr Robert Wicks's interview in this link.

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