SDO and GOES Satellite Observatories

[Bob k6tr]

The SDO Twitter Site is reporting another delay for the launch of SDO. The date is reportedly been pushed back to January 7 2010 due to delivery delays with the Atlas V Booster. There is a remote possibility SDO could be returned to it's original ride in October but I wouldn't hold your breath.

[brokenheadphonez]

oh balls! They can't expect SOHO to go down anytime soon then, or there's another secret SOHO equivalent.

The second idea would explain what Vuk saw.

[Bob k6tr]

First test image from GOES 14 SXI (Solar XRay Imager)

[csspider57]

Ooooo aaaaah oooooo

Pretty neat.

Polar regions look squashed.

What does DN top left column stand for? Thermal brightness or?

[Bob k6tr]

Aug 25, 2009 0:05:27 GMT @csspider57 said:

Ooooo aaaaah oooooo

Pretty neat.

Polar regions look squashed.

What does DN top left column stand for? Thermal brightness or?

Probably something related to X-Ray Intensity.

[brokenheadphonez]

SOHO EIT 195 Latest Image is blank. Pure black, but still datestamped.
Is the time coincidence or is that a reset?

Attachments:

[Bob k6tr]

NASA is now officially listing the launch date for SDO as February 3rd 2010. Ugh

(Sept 12 update)The February 3rd Launch date has been assigned a launch window time (11AM to 12PM) So it looks like this date might stick. Unfortunately there is a Shuttle launch the following day so if the launch is scrubbed the mission will be delayed at least 2 days. Range rules prohibit 2 launches in the same day.

STEREO Ahead will reach Lagrange L4 on September 11th.

STEREO Behind will reach Lagrange L5 on October 26th.

Data from STEREO Behind is currently down. This could be related to the switch in data speed that will reduce data transmission to 360 bps.

Data from STEREO Ahead will dropout intermittently. This comes about from the fact that the DSN Station used to track STEREO Ahead is being used to deal with an emergency on LCROSS which cropped up a couple of weeks ago.

[marconis]

Over the past 5 or more days, it looks like the GOES X-ray has been showing a small peak once a day, usually between about 3:00 UTC to 9:00 UTC. Is this just normal variation in the x-rays or the GOES instrument, or could sometime else be going on? I don't recall seeing anything like this before.

[Bob k6tr]

Sept 18, 2009 2:44:25 GMT marconis said:

Over the past 5 or more days, it looks like the GOES X-ray has been showing a small peak once a day, usually between about 3:00 UTC to 9:00 UTC. Is this just normal variation in the x-rays or the GOES instrument, or could sometime else be going on? I don't recall seeing anything like this before.

marconis board the Goes plot is drawn from Goes 10. That's a very old bird. The X-Ray equipment on both Goes 11 & 12 were knocked out of commission a few years ago by a failure in the pointing mechanism. And the news only goes down hill from there. Goes 13 which is in On-Orbit Storage had its X-Ray Sensors destroyed by an X-Class Flare when the satellite was being checked out after launch.

NOAA has stated that Goes 10 is running out of fuel for its manuevering system and by international agreement has to be deorbitted. NOAA has set February for Goes 10 decommissioning because that is when Goes 14 will complete its checkout and be ready for storage. At that time 13 will be pulled out of storage and Goes 11 and 12 rotated. Kinda like tires on your car. But I have a feeling NOAA may hold off a couple of months if it can. In April 2010 the last of the latest generation of Goes Satellites will be launched. Goes P will become Goes 15 once in orbit and this satellite will be ready for storage in October 2010. At that point Goes 14 comes out of storage and we will have some functioning X-Ray equipment. In others words we could have a 6 to 8 month period in 2010 where we have no X-Ray equipment at all.

I will drop Doug Biesecker a note to get confirmation on this but I see no other way around it unless NOAA pulls Goes 14 out of storage prematurely.

[Bob k6tr]

SOLAR ORBITER

Here is a link to a video describing the European Space Agency's "Solar Orbiter" Mission which is slated to launch in 2015. It was initially scheduled to launch on a Soyuz Fregat booster. It has since been transferred to a NASA Atlas V booster. NASA is keen on this project because it has synergies with it's own "Solar Sentinels" Mission to be launched in 2015. Another NASA Mission "Solar Probe Plus" is also scheduled to launch in 2015.

By 2017 our understanding of how the sun works could change dramatically.

Link for a Quicktime Video embedded in an ESA Webpage
sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=44993

Here is the link if you want to watch the same presentation on a Full Screen
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbT7mrul5WY

[Bob k6tr]

Sept 20, 2009 20:24:37 GMT N9AAT said:

Here's the question I have. Why did we feel it was necessary to place the Stereo satellites in front and behind us? Why not above and below? OR, why BOTH ahead of us and our orbit AND above and below our orbital plane?

The answer to that question is operational. STEREO was designed to provide 3 D Images and Triangulation Data of Coronal Mass Ejections. Those eminate from Sunspot Regions. Those regions rarely form above 35 degrees of Lattitude and rotate in the East-West Plane. So there is no reason to locate them above and below the eclliptic plane.

As to both ahead above and below that is probably constrained by what one can do with gravity assist manuevers. That was how they got there in the first place. And when you do that you are changing accelleration as well as velocity. Therefore much as in the Horizontal plane the satellites would be separating in the vertical plane. That's not very practical when you stop and think about it.

[Bob k6tr]

SDO was given a hard launch date of February 3rd 2010 a few weeks ago. It will also serve as the back up payload for the next Atlas V launch November 11th. Currently the satellite is in temporary storage awaiting launch at Astrotech Facilities in Florida. This morning the crew of SDO Prep Techs were given the orders to bring the satellite out of it's "Dwell Status". In a couple of weeks it will be ready to go if the Intelsat IV payload runs into a snag. Stay tuned events could happen fast.

[rbateman]

I get it that sending a satellite above & below the Sun would result in a longitudinal orbiter. That would be difficult, and they wouldn't stay put (as far as I know).
But, I can think of a very good reason to try it.
We have only equatorial views of the Sun in Magnetogram, Continuum, EUV, Corona, etc.
No telling what would come out of such an attempt.
i will refer to this "unknown" later in another post.
It's a question of perspective.

[Bob k6tr]

Oct 4, 2009 3:29:27 GMT rbateman said:

I get it that sending a satellite above & below the Sun would result in a longitudinal orbiter. That would be difficult, and they wouldn't stay put (as far as I know).
But, I can think of a very good reason to try it.

Robert what N9LLX was asking was if we could place two STEREO like Satellites in the same Heliocentric orbit as earth stack above and below each other. Either ahead or behind earth. And I guess it's possible but not very practical. What you are saying is possible and under consideration by NASA. More about that in a minute.

Oct 4, 2009 3:29:27 GMT rbateman said:

We have only equatorial views of the Sun in Magnetogram, Continuum, EUV, Corona, etc.
No telling what would come out of such an attempt.
i will refer to this "unknown" later in another post.
It's a question of perspective.

The Ulysees Probe gave us a great deal of information on the Magnetic Radiation from the North Pole but that mission is over.

Actually there are three exciting Mission that are slated to Launch in 2015.

The first is Solar Orbiter which is an ESA Mission to send a probe to with 48 Solar Radii of the sun. ESA has been working on defining the instrument payload and construct work is going to begin very soon. It was initial scheduled to be launched on a Russian Fregat Booster but NASA assumed responsibility for the launch earlier this year.

Here is the link to a You Tube video of the mission. It looks really cool.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbT7mrul5WY

Here is the link to the ESA Website for the mission.

sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=45



The second mission scheduled to launch in 2015 is the Solar Sentinels Mission developed by NASA. NASA is not only motivated to undertake this mission but is keen to sync it up with Solar Orbiter. Here is the link for that mission.

lws.gsfc.nasa.gov/missions/sentinels/sentinels.htm

It doesn't look like there is much on the page but click on the STDT report link and then download the Mission Study Report of February 2008. It will take some time as the report is 117 Pages long.

The last mission to be launch in 2015 will be NASA's Solar Probe + Mission.
This mission is slated to pass within less than 10 Solar Radii of the Sun. Here is it's Mission Page.

solarprobe.jhuapl.edu/index.php

Check out the links under "Key Resources". Again alot of cool science.

These missions could reshape our views on basic science for the next century. If only the Issac Newtons and Albert Einsteins were alive.

[Bob k6tr]

GOES P receives it's Launch Date


GOES P the third and final satellite in the Goes N Series was assigned March 3, 2010 as it's launch date by NASA yesterday. Once in orbit an checked out it will be assigned GOES 15. Check should be complete one year from now.


The GOES R series promises some pretty big changes in it's suite of Solar Instruments. The first Satellite of that series is scheduled for launch in late 2014.