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| Depicts: ESA Solar System missions | Copyright: ESA | This poster depicts the fleet of ESA spacecraft that are exploring the Solar System. |
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| Depicts: ESA astrophysics missions | Copyright: ESA | This poster depicts the astrophysics missions of ESA and their observational coverage across the electromagnetic spectrum. |
http://sci.esa.int/education
SDO - Mission Overview
The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) will be taking a closer look at the Sun, the source of all Space Weather. Space Weather affects not only our lives here on Earth, but the Earth itself, and everything outside its atmosphere (astronauts and satellites out in space and even the other planets).
The Sun, our closest star, is still a great mystery to scientists. SDO will help us understand where the Sun's energy comes from, how the inside of the Sun works, and how energy is stored and released in the Sun's atmosphere... yes, the Sun has an atmosphere! By better understanding the Sun and how it works, we will be able to better predict and better forecast the "weather out in space" providing earlier warnings to protect our astronauts and satellites floating around out there.
Many satellites share a ground system (place on the ground where they send data and photographs) and have recording systems to save the data collected until they can talk to their ground station. Because SDO has no recording system and will be collecting so much data, the SDO mission has to build its very OWN ground station. For this to be possible, SDO has to be placed in a geosynchronous orbit (GEO). This means that it will rotate at the same speed as the Earth and will always be directly above and in constant communication with its ground station in New Mexico.
Hefty Prominence Eruption Observed by SDO
watch the VIDEO
https://youtu.be/QdXB07FAJpk
A mass of solar material gathered itself into a twisting mass, spun around for a bit, then rose up and broke apart over a 10-hour period on Oct. 13, 2015. Prominences are unstable clouds of gas tethered above the surface of the sun by magnetic forces.
Coronal Hole Front and Center
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| Fast Solar Wind Causes Aurora Light Shows |
NASA's SDO Sees Sun Emit Mid-Level Flare Oct. 1
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun constantly, captured an image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.
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| NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash on the lower right limb of the sun – at 8:12 p.m. EDT on Oct. 1, 2015. The image is a blend of three wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light that have been colorized. | Credits: NASA/SDO |
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| Credit: NASA/SDO |
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| NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash in the lower right hand side of the sun – on Sept. 28, 2015. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extraordinarily hot material in flares and which is typically colorized in red. | Credits: NASA/SDO |
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| Coronal holes are areas where the sun's magnetic field lines extend out into space and don't return to the sun. This creates what's called an open magnetic field, which is a source of solar particles streaming off the sun, known as the solar wind. |
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| NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of Earth and the moon transiting the sun together on Sept. 13, 2015. The edge of Earth, visible near the top of the frame, appears fuzzy because Earth’s atmosphere blocks different amounts of light at different altitudes. On the left, the moon’s edge is perfectly crisp, because it has no atmosphere. This image was taken in extreme ultraviolet wavelengths of 171 angstroms. Though this light is invisible to our eyes, it is typically colorized in gold. | Credits: NASA/SDO |
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| NASA's SDO captured images of three mid-level solar flares March 7-9, 2015, all from the same active region on the surface of the sun, sunspot AR2297. This image of the flares shows a wavelength of EUV light that highlights the intense heat of a solar flare and that is typically colorized in teal. | Credits: NASA/SDO |
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| The moon partially obscured the view of the sun from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, on Nov. 22, 2014. This lunar transit was visible only from SDO's point of view. | Credits: NASA/SDO |
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| This animated gif shows how the moon passes in between NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and the sun, partially obscuring the view. | Credits: NASA/SDO |
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| By blending different SDO wavelengths, we can get an enhanced image of the sun. The left image was taken in 304 wavelength, the middle in 171 wavelength, and the right shows the blended result. | Credits: NASA/SDO |
SUNRISE Offers New Insight on Sun's Atmosphere
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| The right image shows an image captured by the Sunrise balloon-borne telescope of a region of the chromosphere in close proximity to two sunspots. It serves as a close up of the left images, which were captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. The images were taken on July 16, 2013. | Credits: NASA/SDO/MPS |
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| Two images of the chromosphere as captured by the Sunrise solar observatory that flew on a NASA balloon in July 2013. On the left a typical pattern can be seen: dark areas surrounded by bright rims. On the right, the images show bright, stretched structures on the edges of the darker sunspots. | Credits: MPS |
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| Spacecraft record solar activity as a binary code, 1s and 0s, which computer programs can translate into black and white. Scientists colorize the images for realism, and then zoom in on areas of interest. | Credits: NASA/Karen Fox |
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| Four of the telescopes on the Solar Dynamics Observatory observe extreme ultraviolet light activity on the sun that is invisible to the naked eye. | Credits: NASA/SDO |
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| The Solar Dynamics Observatory observed a solar flare (upper left) and a coronal mass ejection (right) erupting from the sun’s limb in extreme ultraviolet light on August 6, 2010. | Credits: NASA/SDO |
For more information
http://www.nasa.gov/content
