Truly the light is sweet,
and a pleasant thing it is
for the eyes to behold the Sun.
--Ecclesiastes 11:7

David E. McKenzie  
Montana State University   
Solar Physics   

Solar Satellite Operations at MSU

 

Yohkoh

The Japanese/US/UK mission called Yohkoh (Japanese for "sunbeam") carried four scientific instruments: the Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT), Hard X-ray Telescope (HXT), Bragg Crystal Spectrometer (BCS), and Wide Band Spectrometer (WBS). The US Principal Investigator for SXT was Prof. Loren Acton, now at MSU. Under Professor Acton's leadership, the MSU group played a very active role in the Mission Operations & Data Analysis for Yohkoh. Ten past & present members of the MSU Solar Group--faculty and graduate students--participated in the day-to-day operations of SXT and the Yohkoh spacecraft, making frequent trips to ISAS, up until the end of the operational phase of the mission.

TRACE

I participated in the day-to-day operation and scientific utilization of the NASA Transition Region And Coronal Explorer (TRACE) mission, until its end in the summer of 2010. This battery of 4 ultraviolet telescopes, launched in 1998, provided spectacular observations of the thin and dynamic interface region at the base of the corona. This region is also the source of much of the ionizing radiation that determines the properties of the upper atmosphere of the earth, such as the ionosphere and the ozone layer.

Hinode

Known as "Solar-B" prior to launch, Hinode is a follow-on to the very successful Yohkoh ("Solar-A") mission. As a Co-Investigator on the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) for Hinode, I coordinate the MSU team's participation in the Hinode Mission Operations & Data Analysis. Other MSU Solar Group members involved in XRT operations include Dr. Keiji Yoshimura, Dr. Aki Takeda, and PhD student Mike Freed.

SDO

I also assisted in design calibrations and observations planning for the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. SDO is NASA's flagship for the Living With a Star program. With eight channels operating over a range of wavelengths, AIA is the most complex ultraviolet telescope ever built. Following launch in February 2010, MSU faculty and students are participating in analysis of the scientific data from SDO.



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