Thursday, January 20, 2022

The Winter 2022 EVE Cruciform is Complete

Yesterday SDO performed an EVE Cruciform maneuver starting at 1400 UTC (9:00 am ET). During this maneuver the SDO spacecraft nods back and forth and up and down. The science images appear to move as well and can be blurry.

Over the next few days SDO will be supporting the validation of the PHI instrument on Solar Orbiter. PHI is similar to the HMI instrument on SDO. It uses the same spectral line of iron at 6173 Å to measure the line-of-sight Doppler velocity and the vector magnetic field on the solar surface. This weekend marks a time when the SO orbital position allows the scientists to do stereoscopic helioseismic observations, a first for us.

Next month, on 25 Feb 2022, SDO will support the 11th perihelion passage of the Parker Solar Probe.

Other dates of interest are: The Spring 2022 Eclipse Season starts 24 Jan 2022 and ends 17 Feb 2022. Stationkeeping Maneuver #24 is tentatively scheduled for 2326 UTC (6:26 pm ET), 02 Feb 2022.