SDO Day 49: The Future

The doors are open and the CCDs are cold, what's next? For the next several weeks SDO scientists and engineers will work to check out and calibrate the instruments and to coordinate the spacecraft and instruments. I may call it "Focus and Center" but it is a busy time for everyone on SDO making sure these complex instruments do what is needed to get our data. In mid-April we plan to show the world how great the instruments are working at a "First Light Media Telecon."

Stay tuned, Go SDO!

SDO Day 48: AIA Gets Cool

All of the instruments are now working with doors open and cold CCDs.

From Karel Schrijver of the AIA team:

Around 20:00 UT Monday the AIA CCD heaters were turned off allowing the CCD to temperatures drop rapidly from about +40C to -70C and then slowly settle towards their final temperatures. With that drop in temperature, we saw the camera background decrease markedly, and the image quality in all channels improve dramatically.

The engineering images are beautiful, even though taken in an approximate focus position. Tomorrow, we plan to make a series of focus scans to determine an initial optimal focus, and work will start on calibrating the detector amplifier gains, instrument stabilization system response, etc., which will continue to improve image quality.

SDO Day 47: A Weekend of Work

SInce opening all nine doors, work has continued getting the instruments ready for normal science operations. HMI continues to work on sequences and the image stabilization system. EVE is working on understanding their data. AIA is looking at solar images superimposed on the thermal background of their still-warm CCDs and updated their on-board flight software.

SDO Day 45: AIA Doors are Opened

The AIA team members at the MOC celebrate the successful opening of all four AIA telescope doors by 15:30 UTC (11:30 am ET) on Saturday. The doors were opened in the order (by telescope number): 1, 4, 3, and 2.

The AIA CCDs are still warm. On Monday the decontamination heaters will be turned off, and the sequencer will be started so the CCD cool-down can be observed.

All nine SDO instrument doors are now open.

Congratulations AIA!

SDO Day 45: EVE Doors Open and the Sun Celebrates

Almost immediately after the EVE doors opened active region 11057 provided some fireworks and let loose with 4 C-class flares! Here is a graph from the NOAA SWPC in Boulder, CO showing the GOES X-ray fluxes. The EVE doors were all opened by 19:43 UTC, and the flares started at 21:08 UTC.

EVE will study the energetics of such flares while HMI and AIA tell us how and why they form.

Welcome to Solar Cycle 24.

SDO Day 44: EVE Door Opened

At 3:43 pm ET all four EVE doors were open. HMI and AIA were able to measure the jolt of the doors.

Here is the EVE team in the MOC after the doors opened. Congratulations EVE.

AIA doors are to be opened tomorrow.

SDO Day 44: EVE Door Opening

EVE team members at Goddard getting ready to open the EVE doors.

Go EVE, let the Sun shine in!