GPS News  
GOES-O Releases First Solar Image

-
by Staff Writers
Washington DC (SPX) Aug 19, 2009
GOES- 14, formerly GOES-O, has achieved another significant milestone with the release of the first formal Solar Image from the Solar X-Ray Imager (SXI). The engineering and operations team has finished its initial instrument calibration and alignments and produced the image of the sun on August 13, 2009 at approximately 10:05 EDT.

The SXI instrument is built by Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, California. The instrument and the spacecraft continue to operate normally as NASA continues the post launch testing.

The SXI is essentially a soft X-ray telescope that is used to monitor solar conditions and activity.

Every minute the SXI captures an image of the sun's atmosphere in X-rays, providing space weather forecasters with the necessary information in order to determine when to issue forecasts and alerts of conditions that may harm space and ground systems.

Share This Article With Planet Earth
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit
YahooMyWebYahooMyWeb GoogleGoogle FacebookFacebook



Related Links
GOES-O
Solar Science News at SpaceDaily



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


Tiny Flares Responsible For Outsized Heat Of Sun's Atmosphere
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Aug 17, 2009
"Why is the sun's corona so darned hot?" asks James Klimchuk, an astrophysicist at the Goddard Space Flight Center's Solar Physics Laboratory in Greenbelt, Md. The mystery of why temperatures in the solar corona, the sun's outer atmosphere, soar to several million degrees Kelvin (K) -much hotter than temperatures nearer the sun's surface-has puzzled scientists for decades. New observations ... read more







The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2009 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement