James McAteer is always watching the weather - in outer space. He works at mission operations at NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre in Washington DC and it’s his job to watch out for solar flares.

A solar flare is what happens when the Sun’s surface erupts and releases a burst of radiation. The Earth’s atmosphere protects us from this deadly radiation of the Sun, but in space, nothing can stop it. It is strong enough to kill an astronaut or disrupt communications on Earth.

“I spend my day studying images of the Sun and trying to predict the position and the size of eruptions in the Sun which would cause solar flares,” says James. “Because solar flares don’t occur that often, it’s important to observe them with the right instruments whenever they do occur.”

Flare energy

Solar flares release a lot of energy in waves and also in particles. They can knock out satellites and do a lot of harm to astronauts. They can also interfere with our communication abilities.

SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) is a spacecraft that sits between Earth and the Sun, and so it gets an uninterrupted view of the Sun. “There are lots of instruments on SOHO because when a big flare occurs, we really want to make sure we maximize the science that comes out of it,” says James.

James did his undergraduate degree in Belfast. He was always interested in physics, especially astrophysics, and he did a PhD in solar physics.

“The most exciting stage was at the very start of my PhD,” he says. “I got offered a position to go and see a solar eclipse in Zambia. It really got me interested and from that day on, I really wanted to be a solar physicist and I really wanted to study the Sun. When I completed my PhD, I got a job over here.”

Travel

He says that one great thing he finds working at NASA is the scientific freedom. “You don’t have people coming in and giving you jobs as such. You can get on with your own work, you can try out new exciting things that may not work. It gives you the freedom every day to do what you want to do.”

James says one of the best parts about his job is the travel. He is expected to do a lot of international travel, to workshops, conferences and observatories. “I spend a lot of time in New Mexico because there’s a telescope in New Mexico,” he says. “I’m there a couple of times a year.”

He would like to travel even further. “Like most people, I would love to go to space,” he says. “It would be amazing to see the curvature of the Earth. It would be amazing to see the surface of the Moon. It would be amazing to see all the stars in all the galaxies.”

 Learn more:

Learn more about solar flares

Monitor today’s solar activity on the web

Learn more about SOHO