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First Light for Solar Dynamics Observatory
from Nature News
Astronomers seeking to predict solar storms are receiving the first trickles of a wealth of new data, scientists reported this week at a meeting of the Committee on Space Research in Bremen, Germany.
The data come from a new satellite, the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which became operational in late April. Launched on 11 February and costing US$856 million (including the first five years of operation), it is the inaugural mission in NASA's Living With a Star Program, intended to better understand the sources of solar magnetic storms.
One instrument on board uses the Doppler effect to measure the movement of ionized gases in the Sun's atmosphere in response to changes in the Sun's magnetic field -- the magnetic flux. These changes are important, says Yang Liu, a research scientist at Stanford University in California and member of the SDO team, because very often they trigger solar flares and coronal mass ejections. These, in turn, can send radiation sleeting toward Earth, knocking out satellites, disrupting power grids and endangering astronauts.
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