![]() Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite | |
Names | SDO |
---|---|
Mission type | Solar research [1] |
Operator | NASA GSFC [2] |
COSPAR ID | 2010-005A |
SATCAT no. | 36395 |
Website | http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov |
Mission duration | 5 years (planned) 14 years, 6 months (elapsed) |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft type | Solar Dynamics Observatory |
Manufacturer | Goddard Space Flight Center |
Launch mass | 3,100 kg (6,800 lb) |
Dry mass | 1,700 kg (3,700 lb) |
Payload mass | 290 kg (640 lb) |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | 11 February 2010, 15:23:00 UTC |
Rocket | Atlas V 401 |
Launch site | Cape Canaveral, SLC-41 |
Contractor | United Launch Alliance |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric orbit [3] |
Regime | Geosynchronous orbit |
Longitude | 102° West |
![]() Solar Dynamics Observatory patch Large Strategic Science Missions Heliophysics Division Living With a Star program |
The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is a NASA mission which has been observing the Sun since 2010. [4] Launched on 11 February 2010, the observatory is part of the Living With a Star (LWS) program. [5]
The goal of the LWS program is to develop the scientific understanding necessary to effectively address those aspects of the connected Sun–Earth system directly affecting life on Earth and its society. The goal of the SDO is to understand the influence of the Sun on the Earth and near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously. SDO has been investigating how the Sun's magnetic field is generated and structured, how this stored magnetic energy is converted and released into the heliosphere and geospace in the form of solar wind, energetic particles, and variations in the solar irradiance. [6]
The SDO spacecraft was developed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and launched on 11 February 2010, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS). The primary mission lasted five years and three months, with expendables expected to last at least ten years. [7] Some consider SDO to be a follow-on mission to the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). [8]
SDO is a three-axis stabilized spacecraft, with two solar arrays, and two high-gain antennas, in an inclined geosynchronous orbit around Earth.
The spacecraft includes three instruments:
Data which is collected by the craft is made available as soon as possible, after it is received. [9]
As of February 2020, SDO is expected to remain operational until 2030. [10]
The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI), led from Stanford University in Stanford, California, studies solar variability and characterizes the Sun's interior and the various components of magnetic activity. HMI takes high-resolution measurements of the longitudinal and vector magnetic field by viewing the entirety of the Sun's disk, with emphasis on various concentrations of metals in the Sun, with a range centered on the solar spectrum's 617.3-nm Fraunhofer line, passing the light through five filter instruments including a Lyot filter and two Michelson interferometers to rapidly and frequently create Doppler images and magnetograms. The full-disk focus and advanced magnetometers, improve on the capabilities of SOHO's MDI instrument which could only focus within the line of sight with limited magnetic data. [11] [12]
HMI produces data to determine the interior sources and mechanisms of solar variability and how the physical processes inside the Sun are related to surface magnetic field and activity. It also produces data to enable estimates of the coronal magnetic field for studies of variability in the extended solar atmosphere. HMI observations will enable establishing the relationships between the internal dynamics and magnetic activity in order to understand solar variability and its effects. [13]
The Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) measures the Sun's extreme ultraviolet irradiance with improved spectral resolution, "temporal cadence", accuracy, and precision over preceding measurements made by TIMED SEE, SOHO, and SORCE XPS. Some key requirements for EVE are to measure the solar EUV irradiance spectrum with 0.1 nm spectral resolution and with 20 sec cadence. These drive the EVE design to include grating spectrographs with array detectors so that all EUV wavelengths can be measured simultaneously. The instrument incorporates physics-based models in order to further scientific understanding of the relationship between solar EUV variations and magnetic variation changes in the Sun. [14]
The Sun's output of energetic extreme ultraviolet photons is primarily what heats the Earth's upper atmosphere and creates the ionosphere. Solar EUV radiation output undergoes constant changes, both moment to moment and over the Sun's 11-year solar cycle, and these changes are important to understand because they have a significant impact on atmospheric heating, satellite drag, and communications system degradation, including disruption of the Global Positioning System. [15]
The EVE instrument package was built by the University of Colorado Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), with Dr. Tom Woods as principal investigator, [7] and was delivered to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on 7 September 2007. [16] The instrument provides improvements of up to 70% in spectral resolution measurements in the wavelengths below 30 nm, and a 30% improvement in "time cadence" by taking measurements every 10 seconds over a 100% duty cycle. [15]
The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), led from the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL), provides continuous full-disk observations of the solar chromosphere and corona in seven extreme ultraviolet (EUV) channels, spanning a temperature range from approximately 20,000 Kelvin to in excess of 20 million Kelvin. The 12-second cadence of the image stream with 4096 by 4096 pixel images at 0.6 arcsec/pixel provides unprecedented views of the various phenomena that occur within the evolving solar outer atmosphere.
The AIA science investigation is led by LMSAL, which also operates the instrument and – jointly with Stanford University – runs the Joint Science Operations Center from which all of the data are served to the worldwide scientific community, as well as the general public. LMSAL designed the overall instrumentation and led its development and integration. The four telescopes providing the individual light feeds for the instrument were designed and built at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO). [17] Since beginning its operational phase on 1 May 2010, AIA has operated successfully with unprecedented EUV image quality.
AIA wavelength channel | Source [18] | Region of solar atmosphere | Characteristic temperature |
---|---|---|---|
White light (450 nm) | continuum | Photosphere | 5000 K |
170 nm | continuum | Temperature minimum, photosphere | 5000 K |
160 nm | C IV + continuum | Transition region and upper photosphere | 105 and 5000 K |
33.5 nm | Fe XVI | Active region corona | 2.5×106 K |
30.4 nm | He II | Chromosphere and transition region | 50,000 K |
21.1 nm | Fe XIV | Active region corona | 2×106 K |
19.3 nm | Fe XII, XXIV | Corona and hot flare plasma | 1.2×106 and 2x107 K |
17.1 nm | Fe IX | Quiet corona, upper transition region | 6.3×105 K |
13.1 nm | Fe VIII, XX, XXIII | Flaring regions | 4×105, 107 and 1.6×107 K |
9.4 nm | Fe XVIII | Flaring regions | 6.3×106 K |
Photographs of the Sun in these various regions of the spectrum can be seen at NASA's SDO Data website. [19] Images and movies of the Sun seen on any day of the mission, including within the last half-hour, can be found at The Sun Today.
SDO down-links science data (K-band) from its two onboard high-gain antennas, and telemetry (S-band) from its two onboard omnidirectional antennas. The ground station consists of two dedicated (redundant) 18-meter radio antennas in White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, constructed specifically for SDO. Mission controllers operate the spacecraft remotely from the Mission Operations Center at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The combined data rate is about 130 Mbit/s (150 Mbit/s with overhead, or 300 Msymbols/s with rate 1/2 convolutional encoding), and the craft generates approximately 1.5 Terabytes of data per day (equivalent to downloading around 500,000 songs). [7]
Attempt | Planned | Result | Turnaround | Reason | Decision point | Weather go (%) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 10 Feb 2010, 3:26:00 pm | Scrubbed | — | Weather (high winds) [20] | 10 Feb 2010, 4:22 pm (T-3:59, immediately after T-4:00 hold) | 40% [21] | window 10:26 to 11:26 EST, attempts made at 10:26, 10:56 and 11:26 EST |
2 | 11 Feb 2010, 3:23:00 pm | Success | 0 days 23 hours 57 minutes | 60% [21] | Window: 10:23 to 11:23 EST |
NASA's Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center managed the payload integration and launch. [22] The SDO launched from Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41), utilizing an Atlas V-401 rocket with a RD-180 powered Common Core Booster, which has been developed to meet the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program requirements. [23]
Sun dog phenomenon: Moments after launch, SDO's Atlas V rocket penetrated a cirrus cloud which created visible shock waves in the sky and destroyed the alignment of ice crystals that were forming a sun dog visible to onlookers. [24]
After launch, the spacecraft was deployed from the Atlas V into an orbit around the Earth with an initial perigee of about 2,500 km (1,600 mi). [25]
SDO then underwent a series of orbit-raising maneuvers over a few weeks which adjusted its orbit until the spacecraft reached its planned circular, geosynchronous orbit at an altitude of 35,789 km (22,238 mi), at 102° West longitude, inclined at 28.5°. [25] This orbit was chosen to allow 24/7 communications to/from the fixed ground station, and to minimise solar eclipses to about an hour a day for only a few weeks a year.
Camilla Corona is a rubber chicken and is the mission mascot for SDO. It is part of the Education and public outreach team and assists with various functions to help educate the public, mainly children, about the SDO mission, facts about the Sun and Space weather. [26] Camilla also assists in cross-informing the public about other NASA missions and space related projects. Camilla Corona SDO uses social media to interact with fans.
In 2021, the United States Postal Service released a series of forever stamps using images of the Sun taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. [27]
The Explorers program is a NASA exploration program that provides flight opportunities for physics, geophysics, heliophysics, and astrophysics investigations from space. Launched in 1958, Explorer 1 was the first spacecraft of the United States to achieve orbit. Over 90 space missions have been launched since. Starting with Explorer 6, it has been operated by NASA, with regular collaboration with a variety of other institutions, including many international partners.
The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) is a research organization at the University of Colorado Boulder. LASP is a research institute with over one hundred research scientists ranging in fields from solar influences, to Earth's and other planetary atmospherics processes, space weather, space plasma and dusty plasma physics. LASP has advanced technical capabilities specializing in designing, building, and operating spacecraft and spacecraft instruments.
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is a European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft built by a European industrial consortium led by Matra Marconi Space that was launched on a Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS launch vehicle on 2 December 1995, to study the Sun. It has also discovered over 5,000 comets. It began normal operations in May 1996. It is a joint project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA. SOHO was part of the International Solar Terrestrial Physics Program (ISTP). Originally planned as a two-year mission, SOHO continues to operate after over 25 years in space; the mission has been extended until the end of 2025, subject to review and confirmation by ESA's Science Programme Committee.
Deep Space Climate Observatory is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) space weather, space climate, and Earth observation satellite. It was launched by SpaceX on a Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle on 11 February 2015, from Cape Canaveral. This is NOAA's first operational deep space satellite and became its primary system of warning Earth in the event of solar magnetic storms.
Transition Region and Coronal Explorer was a NASA heliophysics and solar observatory designed to investigate the connections between fine-scale magnetic fields and the associated plasma structures on the Sun by providing high-resolution images and observation of the solar photosphere, the transition region, and the solar corona. A main focus of the TRACE instrument is the fine structure of coronal loops low in the solar atmosphere. TRACE is the third spacecraft in the Small Explorer program, launched on 2 April 1998, and obtained its last science image on 21 June 2010, at 23:56 UTC.
The Solar Orbiter (SolO) is a Sun-observing probe developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) with a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) contribution. Solar Orbiter, designed to obtain detailed measurements of the inner heliosphere and the nascent solar wind, will also perform close observations of the polar regions of the Sun which is difficult to do from Earth. These observations are important in investigating how the Sun creates and controls its heliosphere.
The Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) was a NASA-sponsored satellite mission that measured incoming X-ray, ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared, and total solar radiation. These measurements specifically addressed long-term climate change, natural variability, atmospheric ozone, and UV-B radiation, enhancing climate prediction. These measurements are critical to studies of the Sun, its effect on the Earth's system, and its influence on humankind. SORCE was launched on 25 January 2003 on a Pegasus XL launch vehicle to provide NASA's Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) with precise measurements of solar radiation.
Solar physics is the branch of astrophysics that specializes in the study of the Sun. It intersects with many disciplines of pure physics and astrophysics.
The Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL) is part of the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center (ATC) that is known primarily for its scientific work in the field of solar physics, astronomy and space weather. The LMSAL team is part of Lockheed Martin Space Systems and has close affiliations with NASA and the solar physics group at Stanford University.
Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission began in February 2007 as a constellation of five NASA satellites to study energy releases from Earth's magnetosphere known as substorms, magnetic phenomena that intensify auroras near Earth's poles. The name of the mission is an acronym alluding to the Titan Themis.
The Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere is a NASA satellite launched in 2007 to conduct a planned 26-month study of noctilucent clouds (NLCs). It is the ninetieth Explorer program mission and is part of the NASA-funded Small Explorer program (SMEX).
The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer was a NASA space telescope for ultraviolet astronomy. EUVE was a part of NASA's Explorer spacecraft series. Launched on 7 June 1992. With instruments for ultraviolet (UV) radiation between wavelengths of 7 and 76 nm, the EUVE was the first satellite mission especially for the short-wave ultraviolet range. The satellite compiled an all-sky survey of 801 astronomical targets before being decommissioned on 31 January 2001.
The Sun Watcher using Active Pixel System Detector and Image Processing (SWAP) telescope is a compact extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) imager on board the PROBA-2 mission. SWAP provides images of the solar corona at a temperature of roughly 1 million degrees. the instrument was built upon the heritage of the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) which monitored the solar corona from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory from 1996 until after the launch of the Solar Dynamics Observatory in 2010.
MAVEN is a NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars to study the loss of that planet's atmospheric gases to space, providing insight into the history of the planet's climate and water. The name is an acronym for "Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution" while the word maven also denotes "a person who has special knowledge or experience; an expert". MAVEN was launched on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on 18 November 2013 UTC and went into orbit around Mars on 22 September 2014 UTC. The mission is the first by NASA to study the Mars atmosphere. The probe is analyzing the planet's upper atmosphere and ionosphere to examine how and at what rate the solar wind is stripping away volatile compounds.
The Parker Solar Probe is a NASA space probe launched in 2018 with the mission of making observations of the outer corona of the Sun. It will approach to within 9.86 solar radii from the center of the Sun, and by 2025 will travel, at closest approach, as fast as 690,000 km/h (430,000 mph) or 191 km/s, which is 0.064% the speed of light. It is the fastest object ever built.
Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), also called Explorer 94 and SMEX-12, is a NASA solar observation satellite. The mission was funded through the Small Explorer program to investigate the physical conditions of the solar limb, particularly the interface region made up of the chromosphere and transition region. The spacecraft consists of a satellite bus and spectrometer built by the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL), and a telescope provided by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO). IRIS is operated by LMSAL and NASA's Ames Research Center.
Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) is a satellite designed to investigate changes in the ionosphere of Earth, the dynamic region high in the atmosphere where terrestrial weather from below meets space weather from above. ICON studies the interaction between Earth's weather systems and space weather driven by the Sun, and how this interaction drives turbulence in the upper atmosphere. It is hoped that a better understanding of this dynamic will mitigate its effects on communications, GPS signals, and technology in general. It is part of NASA's Explorer program and is operated by University of California, Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory.
The Heliophysics Science Division of the Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA) conducts research on the Sun, its extended Solar System environment, and interactions of Earth, other planets, small bodies, and interstellar gas with the heliosphere. Division research also encompasses geospace—Earth's uppermost atmosphere, the ionosphere, and the magnetosphere—and the changing environmental conditions throughout the coupled heliosphere.
Explorer 55, also known as AE-E, was a NASA scientific satellite belonging to the Atmosphere Explorer series launched on 20 November 1975 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) aboard a Thor-Delta 2910 launch vehicle.
Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) is a future spacecraft mission planned to monitor signs of solar storms, which may pose harm to Earth's telecommunication network. The spacecraft will be operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with launch scheduled for 29 April 2025. It is planned to be placed at the Sun–Earth L1 Lagrange point, a location between the Earth and the Sun. This will allow SWFO-L1 to continuously watch the solar wind and energetic particles heading for Earth. SWFO-L1 is an ESPA Class Spacecraft, sized for launch on an Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA) Grande ring in addition to the rocket's primary payload. The spacecraft's Solar Wind Instrument Suite (SWIS) which includes three instruments will monitor solar wind, and the Compact Coronagraph (CCOR) will monitor the Sun's surroundings to image coronal mass ejection (CME). A CME is a large outburst of plasma sent from the Sun towards interplanetary space.