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Starquakes reveal stellar secrets

14 August 2002

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MSG-1 is installed on the launcher, at the BAF

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The cylinder-shaped MSG 1 satellite will provide improved global weather data for Europe as a follow-on to the Meteosat spacecraft series, which were launched by Ariane beginning in 1977. MSG 1 is a spin-stabilized platform built by Alcatel Space Industries for a cooperative program of the European Space Agency and EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites).

Credits: ESA/CNES-Service Optique CSG

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A powerful flare caught by a SOHO instrument

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A powerful (X3) flare was caught by SOHO's Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer (CDS) instrument on Monday, 15 July 2002, just after 20:00 UT. With its limited field of view, CDS rarely catches flares 'right on'. In fact, they normally try to avoid them to spare the detectors from the additional wear. For these alerts, though, a special observing program with short exposures can be used. The flare was also observed by another instrument on SOHO, the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT). The flare was associated with an Earth-directed full halo Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), observed by both the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) and Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS) on board SOHO. The shock from the CME passed by SOHO at about 15:29 UT on 17 July 2002, as observed by the CELIAS/MTOF Proton Monitor.

Credits: SOHO/CDS, SOHO/EIT (ESA & NASA); TRACE (NASA)

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SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA. SOHO's science ranges from the Sun's hot interior, through its visible surface and stormy atmosphere, and out to distant regions where the wind from the Sun battles with a breeze of atoms coming from among the stars.

Credits: ESA