Very interesting........
Age of warning satellite causes concern
A U.S. satellite giving the only advance warning of incoming high-energy solar particles is getting old and is possibly on its last legs, researchers say.
But a replacement for NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer, or ACE, satellite is at least two years away, they said.
ACE provides the only advance notice of incoming high-energy particles from the sun which can wreak havoc on indispensable radio, GPS and satellite communications, researchers said.
Launched in 1997, ACE gives the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's space weather forecasting arm advance notice if a storm is headed toward Earth, as it did with the solar storm that left the sun Tuesday.
How much longer the satellite can keep working is a concern, scientists said.
The full article is here:
[link to www.spacedaily.com]