The <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/uk/" target="_blank">UK</a> is putting £15 million ($19 million) into boosting its space presence with scientists asked to upgrade Britain's "eyes on the world". The grants for Earth-observation technology are intended to keep Britain at the forefront of fields such as weather forecasting and climate monitoring. New monitoring tools could be mounted on satellites within a few years, the government said as it tries to position <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/uk-news/2023/03/06/rishi-sunak-unveils-plan-for-uk-to-be-science-and-technology-superpower-by-2030/" target="_blank">Britain as a science superpower</a>. The funding could include as much as £3 million ($3.8 million) for individual flagship projects to be tested in vacuum chambers and in the air. Britain's Met Office, which forecasts solar storms, is among the agencies hoping to benefit from any government-funded breakthroughs. The announcement comes as the UK steps up its preparation for solar storms with new monitoring systems to predict "space weather". Harshbir Sangha, a director at the UK's Space Agency, said the new funding "will help catalyse investment across the sector to support a range of innovative projects". These could include developing new sensor technologies or gathering data to improve the UK's understanding of climate change, Mr Sangha said. "Satellite technology is essential to our daily lives, helping us to monitor climate change and protect our environment, manage our resources, respond to global humanitarian disasters and support sustainable development," he said. John Remedios, the head of the National Centre for Earth Observation, said the funding would "enable the UK to design and test our next ‘eyes on our world’". "The UK has a proud history of developing satellite instruments that have transformed our understanding of the global Earth system, from ocean temperature change to polar ice melt," he said. Britain is part of the European Space Agency, which launches satellites from French Guiana. An <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/uk-news/2023/01/10/virgin-orbit-launch-space-failure-cornwall/" target="_blank">attempted launch from UK soil</a> in January failed. A <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/uk-news/2023/08/02/new-government-register-lists-most-serious-threats-posed-to-the-uk/" target="_blank">UK risk register</a> published on Thursday said severe solar storms could knock out navigation and communications satellites and increase the risk of collisions. Any satellite failure would affect "essential services such as financial market infrastructure, communications, government services, emergency services and transport infrastructure", it said. However, the danger of a fragment of satellite debris hitting the UK is assessed as "extremely unlikely".