Lynker Space has introduced a new capability for predicting and mitigating space weather threats to numerous industries and critical services.
Leading the effort is Scott McIntosh, a solar and astrophysical researcher of more than 25 years, who has joined Lynker as Vice President of Space Operations.
McIntosh served as Deputy Director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research since 2019. He has authored or co-authored more than 160 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and currently leads the research arm of the White House Space Weather Advisory Group. McIntosh was lead author on a study that accurately predicted the ongoing Solar Cycle 25 to be much more active than consensus estimates.
More than 8,000 satellites in LEO, the power grid, aviation, GPS, and other essential technologies are vulnerable to solar and geomagnetic activity. While recent solar storms have registered at the highest levels of the geomagnetic storm scale, even mild disturbances can have major impacts, potentially costing any one company or organization millions of dollars in damages or disruptions.
Lynker Space is transforming space weather forecasting with new technology underpinned by a unique understanding of the physics of the sun, its underlying magnetic activity, and the intertwined solar and near-Earth environments. The technology has been developed through more than a decade of rigorous research and validation using solar data going back more than 200 years.
Lynker Space’s operational and strategic space weather dashboards provide highly skilled, industry-specific forecasts on timescales ranging from seconds to years, and from the regional to global scale. They can be tailored to any individual customer to help secure vulnerable assets near and on Earth.
Dashboards can be viewed via password-protected web portal or mobile app and users can set up customized alerts. Customers also have access to briefings from space weather experts; training, support and consulting services; and a community of operational space weather responders.
“While space weather forecasting has come a long way, previously existing forecasts don’t provide the accuracy, lead time, or industry-specific insights necessary to implement proper mitigating actions,” said Joe Linza, Lynker’s Founder and CEO. “We’ve developed this new service by really focusing on delivering actionable forecasts of space weather and its impacts on a particular industry or asset. Scott McIntosh is one of the world’s renowned space weather experts and the ideal person to spearhead this effort.”
“The most extreme geomagnetic storms and stunning auroras get all the headlines. However, the truth is that between solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and the relentless solar wind, space weather presents a perpetual threat,” McIntosh said. “We now have the technology to provide high-precision forecasts out to the decadal scale, and to translate them for use in both daily operations and strategic planning to mitigate impacts and ensure the reliability of essential technologies and infrastructure.”
Lynker delivers fully integrated science, engineering, and technology solutions addressing today’s most important environmental challenges. With more than 500 scientific, technical, engineering, and data-management staff across 48 states and four U.S. territories, we are a trusted prime contractor and partner to governments, communities, and industry with an unwavering commitment to our customers and their missions.