Scientists are working on the launch of a spacecraft mission which will allow them to view the Sun’s atmosphere in more detail than ever before.

The proposed Moon-Enabled Solar Occultation Mission (MESOM) will enable an international team of researchers to study the conditions that create solar storms, leading to improvements in forecasts of space weather on Earth.

The MESOM spacecraft will fly on a peculiar trajectory enabled by the gravitational attraction of the Earth, the Sun and the Moon, and will use the shadow of the Moon to re-create a total solar eclipse in space once every lunar month lasting almost 50 minutes.

Total solar eclipses seen from Earth only last between 10 seconds and 7.5 minutes.

Creating a longer eclipse in space will enable the MESOM team to take high-quality images and measurements of the Sun’s corona, filling gaps in existing understanding of the physical processes taking place in the solar atmosphere that lead to space weather.

Professor Huw Morgan, Head of the Space Physics Group at Aberystwyth University, is a member of the UK team leading the mission alongside the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at UCL and the Space Centre at the University of Surrey.

He said: “As we become globally more dependent on wireless technologies, there is a growing risk of major disruption to everyday life on Earth as a result of space weather.

“MESOM is an incredibly exciting mission which will advance our scientific understanding of the solar atmosphere and space weather to new levels, enabling us to provide more accurate forecasts and take mitigating action.

“In Aberystwyth, as members of the core UK team, we are closely involved in a study mapping out the feasibility of the mission which is due to be launched in the early 2030s.

“We are also working with international experts in solar physics, solar atmospherics and leading experience in solar-observing space missions.”

The project builds on world-class research at Aberystwyth University, including designing software for the Met Office to improve their space weather forecasting, measuring the speed of Coronal Mass Ejections more accurately and developing space instrumentation for the ExoMars mission.