NASA’s CURIE mission to explore solar radio waves

NASA’s CubeSat Radio Interferometry Experiment (CURIE) will launch on Tuesday to explore the origins of radio waves from the sun, a key driver of space weather. CURIE will be launched aboard an Ariane 6 rocket from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, flying at an altitude of 360 miles (580 kilometers).

Using radio interferometry, CURIE will study radio burst emissions from solar eruptions like flares and coronal mass ejections, which impact space weather and geomagnetic effects on Earth. Designed by the University of California, Berkeley, it will be the first mission to measure radio waves in the 0.1-19 MHz frequency range from space, as these wavelengths are blocked by Earth’s atmosphere.

CURIE will employ low-frequency radio interferometry, a technique never before used in space. This involves two independent spacecraft, each no bigger than a shoebox, orbiting about two miles apart. This setup allows CURIE’s instruments to measure tiny differences in the arrival time of radio waves, determining their exact origins.

Source – CGTN