Authors: Robin Colaninno (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory), Phillip Hess (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory), Eleni Nikou (NRC Research Associate, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory), Teresa Nieves-Chinicilla (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), Cecilia Mac Cormack (CUA, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)

The Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI) on board the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission provides unique perspectives of an under-observed regions in the inner heliosphere. Due to the telemetry constraints inherent to interplanetary missions, SoloHI science data latency can span from several days to months. To mitigate this limitation, SoloHI utilizes the mission’s low-latency telemetry channel to downlink equatorial strips of science data during each ground contact, which are compiled into elongation-time plots (J-maps) on the ground. Having overcome previous engineering and mission constraints, we are now reintroducing the SoloHI low-latency data product. The primary goal of this product is to enhance space weather forecasting, particularly for Mars and other critical targets of interest to NASA spaceflight operations. While observations from heliographic imagers are not currently utilized in operational space weather forecasting, we are collaborating with the Moon to Mars (M2M) Space Weather Analysis Office to operationalize the updated SoloHI low-latency data product and integrate it into their forecasting pipeline.