The National Space Weather Monitoring and Warning Center officially went operational Thursday in Beijing.

"This means space weather forecasting mainly for space security has moved out of its field of research and into a public service role," an unnamed official at the center said.

Using weather satellites to gain information about the space environment by watching solar activity, the magnetosphere and ionosphere, the center is capable of following and predicting sudden bursts of bad space weather.

Space weather refers to sun activity, geomagnetic storms and the amount of protons -- a basic and subatomic particle -- that are in the solar wind, which is a fast stream of gases that are ejected by the sun.

The center will also develop new monitoring techniques, early warning methods and models for space weather.

Zhang Jun, deputy director of the National Satellite Meteorological Center under the China Meteorological Administration said: "the center will offer free services for the prevention of space accidents, communication, navigation and the security of ground facilities belonging to weather satellites, as well as human life on the Earth."

Although China's space weather prediction program only started in the late 1990s, it will assist the nation in its push for further space exploitation, according to insiders.

Space weather affects the capability and reliability of space or land-based technological systems and our daily lives.

Space tempests like solar flares can cause breakdowns in satellites, communications, navigational equipment and power grids.

Such space hazards can also threaten human health and wreak havoc on society, experts have warned.

The space weather can be seen by clicking onto www.spaceweather.gov.cn.

(China Daily July 2, 2004)