Furlough Notice

The Federal Government is currently shut down. Although the SDO spacecraft continues to be monitored and the science data continues to be generated, the Goddard website at sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov may be unavailable.

Momentum Management Maneuver #33

SDO will perform Momentum Management Maneuver (Delta-H) #33 between 1946 and 2040 UTC (2:46-3:40 pm ET) today. We will fire the thrusters to bring the reaction wheels to their planned speeds. Science data may be unavailable or blurry during the maneuver.

Lunar Transit on November 7, 2018

SDO will experience a lunar transit on November 7, 2018. Here is a movie from the Flight Operations Team that shows SDO, the Sun, and the Moon during the transit. This transit lasts from 2024-2116 UTC (3:24-4:16 pm ET) and covers at most about 44% of SDO's view of the Sun.

The Moon moves from left to right during this transit. That makes it an SDO-overtake transit.

Although you can see the Moon throughout the movie SDO's instruments cannot see the Moon when it is not covering the Sun. The little white flash seen in the Moon is the word "Moon" being written by the software and then quickly covered. The boxes drawn around and on the Sun help the FOT run the spacecraft. The time is displayed in the lower left corner of the movie. The first seven numbers are the year (2018) and the day of year (311). The six numbers after the period are the hour, minutes, and second of UTC (2 numbers each).

The next SDO Lunar Transit will be on March 6, 2019. That one will also be a double transit similar to the one in September 2018.

Enjoy!

HMI Focus Adjustments Today, Data may be Unavailable

Anything looking at the Sun tends to heat up. The SDO instruments have been looking at the Sun for 8.5 years. Although they are designed to look at the Sun for a long time, some changes still happen.

For example, the coatings on the HMI instrument housings and optical surfaces have been degrading slowly but steadily, causing the instrument to absorb more solar radiation and heat up. The front surface of HMI’s telescope is now hot enough that the HMI team is having difficulty maintaining proper focus. Without some adjustments, this problem will only get worse as the instrument continues to age.

For this reason, the HMI team is going to increase the operating temperatures of the front of the telescope and adjust the internal focus mechanism. This should give the instrument many more years of precise control and excellent data. The process of increasing the operating temperatures is a slow one — the team will begin heating the front telescope tube up at 1000 UTC on Tuesday, October 16, and will then wait six hours for the temperature to stabilize. The next step is to fine-tune the temperatures. These smaller changes will need about an hour for the temperature to become constant. Science data will not be available during the time it takes to bring the instrument back into focus. That also means there will be no magnetic field, continuum, or Doppler NRT data products.

HMI resumed taking science data before 2130 UTC, October 16. Fine tuning of the focus will occur Wednesday, October 17, but science data will not be interrupted.

Nice Video of Solar Cycle 24 Eruptions

Can't get enough solar eruptions, especially from SDO? Here's a nice video from the Solar-Terrestrial Center of Excellence in Brussels, Belgium. They call it Spectacular Solar Eruptions during Solar Cycle 24. Many of my favorite eruptions are included, along with others that might become your favorite. Videos from STEREO, SOHO, and Proba2 are also included.

Enjoy!

SDO Maneuvers September 12, 2018

Between 1315 and 1900 UTC (9:15 am - 3 pm ET) On September 12, 2018, SDO performed the EVE field of view and HMI/AIA flat field maneuvers. During the maneuvers science data may be blurry, displaced, or missing. The near-real-time images on the SDO website are now corrected for the spacecraft motion and almost always show a centered Sun.

The September 9-10 Double Lunar Transits

SDO will experience a double lunar transit on September 9 and 10, 2018. Here is a movie from the Flight Operations Team that shows SDO, the Sun, and the Moon during the transits. During the first transit, from 2030-2130 UT (4:30-5:30 pm ET) on September 9, the Moon will cover up to 92% of SDO's view of the Sun. The second transit lasts from 0152-0241 UT on September 10 (or 9:52-10:41 pm ET on September 9 for those of us on the East coast of the USA.) Only 34% of the Sun will be covered by the Moon.

The Moon moves from left to right during the first transit and right to left for the second. The first transit is caused by SDO overtaking the Moon as SDO moves in the afternoon part of its orbit. (SDO orbits over the Mountain Time Zone of the USA.) SDO's velocity of about 3 km/s is faster than the Moon's of 1 km/s and SDO overtakes and moves past the Moon-Sun line. The second transit happens after SDO has moved into the evening part of the orbit and is now moving mostly away from the Moon in SDO's orbit around the Earth. The Moon's velocity takes it past the Sun and the shadow appears to move from right to left.

During the total solar eclipse last year the Moon's shadow moved from the West coast of the US towards the East. This is because the speed of the rotation of the Earth (less than 0.5 km/s) is slower than the speed of the Moon. That means the motion of the Moon overtakes the motion of the Earth. The shadow follows the Moon and moves from West to East, like the second transit.

Although you can see the Moon throughout the movie SDO's instruments cannot see the Moon when it is not covering the Sun. The little white flash seen in the Moon is the word "Moon" being written by the software and then quickly covered. The boxes drawn around and on the Sun help the FOT run the spacecraft. The time is displayed in the lower left corner of the movie. The first seven numbers are the year (2018) and the day of year (252 and 253). The six numbers after the period are the hour, minutes, and second of UTC (2 numbers each).

When I first saw this movie I thought we were going to talk about retrograde motion. Other planets, especially Mars, move in retrograde as the Earth moves past them with our faster orbital velocity. But it isn't just that. The first transit is like retrograde motion as SDO passes by the Moon-Sun line with its faster velocity and the Moon appears to move backwards. But the second transit happens because SDO is moving mostly away from and a little in the opposite direction of the Moon.

This double transit shows how complicated the motions of objects can appear even as they move along simple orbits.

Enjoy!