Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors.
Source: Space Weather
TianQin is a geocentric space-borne gravitational wave detector, which is proposed to detect the gravitational wave by measuring tiny displacements using inter-satellite laser interferometry. However, the space surrounding the orbit and laser links of TianQin is not a vacuum—but filled with plasma, which can bend the laser links and induce pointing accuracy noise in the gravitational wave detection.
Based on a global magnetohydrodynamic model, Zhou et al. [2026] use a ray-tracing method to obtain the laser deflection caused by laser propagation through plasma, and to evaluate the pointing accuracy noise. Â The result shows that the laser deflection effect caused by large-scale space plasma distribution under quiet to moderate space weather conditions does not represent a fundamental risk to the TianQin mission. However, during severe space weather events, the laser propagation effect could become a considerable noise in the gravitational wave detection.
This work establishes a connection between space weather and gravitational wave detection. Furthermore, this work raises awareness of the impact of space weather on other high-precision electromagnetic wave measurements in space.
Citation: Zhou, S. W, Su, W., Zhou, S. Y., Li, C. F., & Zhang, J. X. (2026). The pointing error due to laser propagation in space plasma for TianQin gravitational wave detection. Space Weather, 24, e2025SW004784. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025SW004784
—Jiuhou Lei, Editor, Space Weather
Text © 2026. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.
Â
