Space Science

November 12, 2025

SANSA News

Strong Solar Activity Triggers Geomagnetic Storms

The biggest geomagnetic storm of the year to date is currently in progress, causing possible disruptions to technological systems. The Sun has been active over past three days with three X-class (strong) solar flares observed. A solar flare is

May 11, 2024

SANSA News

Southern African Skies light up with Aurora as Historic Solar Storms Collides with Earth

A historic solar storm impacted Earth throughout the night on Friday, 10 May 2024 and continued into Saturday, 11 May 2024. The South African National Space Agency (SANSA) Space Weather Centre issued several G4 warnings and, for the first

January 10, 2024

Daleen Fouche

SANSA: Over a Decade of Excellence in HF Communications

High-frequency communications, or HF, is an essential tool used across the globe, especially on the African continent, for long-distance communications. An example of this was during the Mozambique hurricane disaster when cell phone systems became overloaded and satellite phones

Planetary K-index produced by SANSA with the disturbance storm time (Dst) as the black line

March 24, 2023

Daleen Fouche

Navigation and communications systems to be impacted by severe geomagnetic storm

A severe geomagnetic storm caused by a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the Sun arrived late on Thursday 23 March and continues to impact the Earth and its technological systems today. The CME was ejected from the Sun on

January 27, 2023

Daleen Fouche

Changes in Earth’s inner core will not have dramatic effect on magnetic field

A new study published in Nature Geoscience suggests that the rotation of Earth's inner core might be slowing down. This conclusion is based on measurements of seismic waves studied by the authors at Peking University in China. This study

November 3, 2022

Vaneshree Maharaj

Minister Blade Nzimande launches the SANSA Space Weather Capability in Hermanus

[caption id="attachment_12876" align="alignleft" width="853"] Minister Nzimande with Hermanus and Overberg Mayors and SANSA Board Chairman cut ribbon to Space Weather Centre[/caption] The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Blade Nzimande, launched South Africa’s new 24-hour, state-of-the-art regional Space

April 5, 2022

Daleen Fouche

New Insights Predict Stronger than Expected Solar Cycle

New research [1] predicts that the new solar cycle (SC25) is going to be stronger than initially expected. It is now believed solar cycle (SC25) will be at similar intensity as SC23 which brought us the famous Halloween Storm

February 15, 2022

Daleen Fouche

The Starlink disaster of 4 Feb 2022 and its links to Space Weather

Starlink suffered a serious setback on 4 Feb 2022 with the untimely demise of 40 of its satellites launched the previous day [1]. The Starlink satellite system is claimed to become the world’s most advanced broadband internet system [2].

February 7, 2022

Daleen Fouche

SANSA provides first specialised Space Weather Forecasting course in the world

[caption id="attachment_10863" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] From left is Boitumelo Makobe Nkosinathi Masango Katekile Shivambo and Nondumiso Khumalo[/caption] SANSA has developed a space weather forecasting curriculum to train the future generation of space weather forecasters. There are currently four South

A Centre Of Excellence in HF Communications

January 19, 2022

Daleen Fouche

SANSA: Ten years of Excellence in HF Communications

High-Frequency communications or HF is an essential tool used across the globe and especially on the African continent for long-distance communications. Many sectors across the continent rely greatly on HF communications for different purposes. Such sectors include the Aviation,

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Category: Space Science