UK scientists gear up for NASA's latest mission - Solar Dynamics Observatory

UK scientists are gearing up for the launch of NASA’s latest space mission, set to launch from Cape Canaveral at 15.30 GMT, on Tuesday, 9 February 2010. The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) will deliver high resolution images of the Sun ten times better than the average High-Definition television to help scientists understand more about the Sun and its disruptive influence on services like communications systems on Earth. The UK, including scientists and engineers from the Science and Technology Facility Council’s (STFC’s) Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), has provided essential expertise and technology to the mission.

SDO is the first mission in NASA’s Living with a Star (LWS) programme. Its unique orbit will allow high resolution images to be recorded every three quarters of a second, providing in-depth information about the Sun’s complex magnetic fields and space weather generated by solar flares and violent eruptions from the Sun’s atmosphere known as Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs).

“A CME can carry a billion tonnes of solar material into space at over a million kilometres per hour. Such events can expose astronauts to deadly particle doses, can disable satellites, cause power grid failures on Earth and disrupt communications,” said STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory scientist, Professor Richard Harrison. “The Sun’s activity has a strong influence on the Earth. By studying solar activity, we hope to improve the prediction of solar storms and find new ways to protect technological systems here on Earth”.

The UK’s principal contribution is provision of the cameras for SDO and the data they produce. The high resolution cameras are at the heart of a set of US-led telescope systems which allow scientists to see features in the Sun’s atmosphere on very small scales in time and space, and in many wavelengths simultaneously. The telescopes also allow detailed studies of solar magnetic fields and even of the nature of the solar interior.

“The cameras will give us new views of the Sun at a faster rate than ever before, and in exquisite detail, enabling us to find out what makes the Sun so hot and what causes the explosions in the Sun’s atmosphere. This will produce more science data than any mission in NASA history,” said Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) scientist, Professor Len Culhane.

RAL engineers designed and built the electronics systems for the six cameras on two of SDO’s instruments. Under contract from, Lockheed Martin, they developed the electronics boxes which control and read out the data from SDO’s cameras.

“Space missions require extremely light and compact, power-saving equipment which has to be built to stringent design and manufacturing requirements,” said RAL’s SDO Project Manager, Sarah Beardsley. “Inside each electronics box are four small, custom made video processing chips called ASICs (Application, Specific, Integrated Circuit). Each ASIC replaces a complete board of electronics which saves both space and power, and enables complex high speed parallel processing of data. The design of the electronics boxes has been so successful that we are now under contract to design, build and test the camera electronics for the SUVI instrument on NASA’s forthcoming GOES-R weather satellite.”

RAL’s engineers also worked closely together with e2v Ltd, the UK company tasked with developing the unique Charged Couple Devices for SDO’s cameras.

UK institutions involved in SDO are:

• STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, provision of camera electronics boxes and SDO scientific co-investigator team
  
  
• Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL), University College London, SDO scientific co-investigator team
  
  
• University of Sheffield, SDO scientific co-investigator team
  
  
• e2v Ltd, provision of CCDs

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Notes for editors

Images available

• Image 1: Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft.
  Credit: NASA
  
  
• Image 2 and image 3: The Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft. The four AIA telescopes are at the top, and, mounted on the near panel are the HMI (right) and EVE (left).
  Credit: NASA
  
  
• Image 4: The complex solar atmosphere is revealed by ultraviolet images such as these taken from the NASA STEREO spacecraft. The UV radiation is generated by high-temperature plasma (charged gas) trapped in magnetic fields which we see as complex loop systems.
  Credit: STEREO-SECCHI consortium

Press office contacts

• Bekky Stredwick
  Press Office
  STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
  Tel: +44 (0)1235 445777
  Mobile: +44 (0)7825 861436
  
  
• Lucy Stone
  Press Office
  STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
  Tel: +44 (0)1235 445627
  Mobile: +44 (0)7920 870125

UK science contacts available via the press office for interview and comment

• Professor Richard Harrison
  STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory: SDO co-Investigator
  
  
• Dr Sarah Beardsley
  STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory: RAL Programme Manager for the SDO project
  
  
• Dr Andre Fludra
  STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory: SDO co-Investigator
  
  
• Dr Nick Waltham
  STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory: RAL SDO Project Director and Lead Engineer
  
  
• Professor Len Culhane, Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London: Scientific co-Investigator
  
  
• Professor Mike Thompson, University of Sheffield: Scientific co-Investigator

Launch and timescales

SDO is planned to launch aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. During the first month after the launch the SDO instruments will undergo testing and commissioning. When the instrument performance has been verified, science observations will begin in early March (assuming launch on 9 February). The expected duration of the mission is 5 years.

Live launch event

Media are invited to an event at RAL Space to watch the launch live. For further information and to register your interest in attending the event, please contact Sarah Smart on 01235 446433.

Collaboration

SDO is a NASA mission. In the UK institutions involved include: STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory; e2v Ltd; UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory; University of Sheffield.

STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory has provided the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory with the CCD Camera electronics systems for two of the three scientific instruments on SDO: Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) and Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI). In addition RAL, MSSL and Sheffield have scientific interest as SDO co-investigator groups.

STFC has a strong track record in other solar missions including SOHO, HINODE and STEREO.

SDO remote sensing instruments

HMI (Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager) will make measurements of the minute motions of the solar photosphere to study solar oscillations to determine in detail what happens in the Sun’s interior. It will also measure the strength and the distribution of the magnetic field on the Sun’s surface, and allow scientists to calculate how the magnetic field fills the entire space around the Sun.

AIA (Atmospheric Imaging Assembly) will take images of the solar atmosphere in several wavelengths selected from the Extreme Ultraviolet and Ultraviolet wavelength range, invisible to human eye.

EVE (Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment) will measure the Sun’s energy output in Extreme-Ultraviolet wavelengths (this is called irradiance ) with unprecedented precision.

Camera CCD

Each camera on the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument has a custom designed 16 million pixel Charged Coupled Device, a sensor which records the images taken by the cameras.

View more information about SDO and its instruments (link opens in a new window).

Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin (link opens in a new window) is a global security company that employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services, from strengthening global security through defense system modernization, to air, marine and rail traffic management; and from military and civil command and control systems to building and launching satellites.

e2v Ltd

e2v Ltd (link opens in a new window) specialises in the design and supply of specialised components and sub-systems to enable the world's leading systems companies to deliver innovative solutions for medical and science, aerospace and defence and commercial and industrial markets.

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (link opens in a new window) (NASA) is a United States government agency that is responsible for science and technology related to air and space.

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