12 February 2010
Sheffield scientists involved in NASA´s latest mission
Sheffield scientists celebrated the launch of NASA´s latest space mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida yesterday (Thursday 11 February 2010). The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) will deliver high resolution images of the Sun ten times better than the average High-Definition (HD) television to help scientists understand more about the Sun and its disruptive influence on services like communications systems on Earth.
Scientists from the UK, including those at the University of Sheffield, have 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).
Professor Richard Harrison, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) scientist, said: "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. 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."
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.
Sheffield scientists Professor Michael Thompson and Professor Robertus von Fay-Siebenburgen provided expertise in the development of the mission and will be very busy in the coming months and years in analysing data from the two major instruments on board the SDO satellite. Professor Thompson is co-investigator on the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) instrument which will study the origins of solar magnetic activity and variability in the deep interior of the sun using a technique called helioseismology. Professor von Fay-Siebenburgen is co-investigator on the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument, which will give an unprecedented view of the sun´s hot outer atmosphere, the solar corona.
Professor Michael Thompson said: "Solar Dynamics Observatory will provide the next major step forward in understanding how the sun generates its magnetic fields and how these drive explosive eruptions that send damaging radiation and charged particles into the surrounding space. These explosive events impact on our high-tech society: they can knock out satellite electronics, cause power surges in electrical grids particularly at high latitudes, and are life-threatening to astronauts if they are outside the Earth´s protective magnetic shield.
"Our work with SDO data at Sheffield aims to use vibrations of the Sun´s surface with a technique called helioseismology to learn how in the sun´s deep interior the magnetic fields get generated, and get twisted and carried up to emerge through the sun´s surface. Also we will have a major activity to study waves in the sun´s atmosphere and using their observed properties to work out the structure of the magnetic field and charged plasma above the surface. A major goal of SDO is to improve understanding to the point where we can forecast `space weather´, and in particular when explosive events will threaten Earth."
Notes for Editors: 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.
For further information please contact: Lindsey Bird, Media Relations Manager, on 0114 2225338 or email l.bird@sheffield.ac.uk
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