Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)

cIclops · 2007-11-11 10:36:10

SDO's goal is to understand, driving towards a predictive capability, the solar variations that influence life on Earth and humanity's technological systems by determining
* 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.

SDO is a sun-pointing semi-autonomous spacecraft that will allow nearly continuous observations of the Sun with a continuous science data downlink rate of 130 Megabits per second (Mbps). The spacecraft is 4.5 meters high and over 2 meters on each side, weighing a total of 3100 kg (fuel included). SDO's inclined geosynchronous orbit was chosen to allow continuous observations of the Sun and enable its exceptionally high data rate through the use of a single dedicated ground station.

SDO will be returning an enormous amount of data through a new 18m DSN Ka band antenna.

cIclops · 2008-03-07 03:31:01

Data Collection Comparison

Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) will dramatically increase our ability to collect data about the Sun. This visualization compares the temporal and spatial resolution of SOHO/EIT with TRACE. SDO will enable TRACE-like image and temporal resolution over the entire solar disk.
This movie opens with a full-disk view of the Sun in ultraviolet light (195 Angstroms) from SOHO/EIT using the traditional TRACE 'gold' color table. We zoom in on the active region on the western limb where the TRACE instrument is pointing and fade-in an inset of the higher-resolution TRACE data. To emphasize the comparison, the TRACE inset is moved aside (with a solid white border) revealing the matching EIT data view (enclosed in the faint white border). At this point, we step through the time series of data frames.
In this movie, much of the TRACE imagery is collected at time intervals between 3 and 40 seconds. On the other hand, a new SOHO/EIT image is taken about every 12 minutes (720 seconds).
The SDO Atomospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) will take full-disk solar images at four times the SOHO/EIT spatial resolution, a whopping 4096x4096, and at least 70 times the temporal resolution, 10 seconds or better per image. This creates a data rate over 1000x higher than SOHO/EIT. It is roughly equivalent to TRACE spatial and temporal resolution, but over the entire solar disk.

This will produce a massive data set and great movies!

cIclops · 2008-03-29 06:39:54

Solar array installation

Sometime between the end of 2008 and the beginning 2009, NASA will launch the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) to trace these disturbances back to their origin deep within the sun. SDO will discover how the sun builds up and explosively releases magnetic energy, which powers severe space weather.
"Right now, we can make limited space weather predictions, but they are baby steps compared to our ability to forecast weather on Earth," said Dr. Dean Pesnell of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., Project Scientist for SDO. "SDO's instruments are designed to work together to tell us more about how solar storms form, which will improve predictions of when they are about to happen."

Mission to Improve Predictions of Violent Space Weather - 3 Mar 2008

cIclops · 2008-05-23 03:28:28

Mating the spacecraft bus with the propulsion module - video - 2:39 mins

Smart Design Fosters Perfect Fit - 3 Apr 2008

Imagine a wedding dress or a tailored suit that fit the first time you tried it on. That's pretty similar to how engineers felt when the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft bus was lowered onto the propulsion module and it attached on the first try. "It’s like lowering a telephone booth over a person," said Gary Davis, SDO propulsion subsystem manager at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "The mechanical people made the operation look easy. It's never easy. There are some mechanical things you can never model and predict."

The propellant tanks are titanium balloons with the thickness of just 9 sheets of notebook paper, but they can hold 27 times their weight. There are 8 smaller attitude control thrusters and one main engine thruster. Four of the attitude control thrusters are backups. If the main thruster goes out, the smaller thrusters will be able to carry out SDO's mission. SDO is a five year mission, but the spacecraft will carry enough fuel for at least 10 years.

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#1 2007-11-11 10:36:10

Re: Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)

#2 2008-03-07 03:31:01

Re: Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)

#3 2008-03-29 06:39:54

Re: Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)

#4 2008-05-23 03:28:28

Re: Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)

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