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SOHO

Mission Overview

The Solar & Heliospheric Observatory is a project of international collaboration between ESA and NASA to study the Sun from its deep core to the outer corona and the solar wind. It’s orbiting the Lagrange L1 point, providing a continuous view of the Sun.

Launch date

1995

Focus

Solar and space physics

Partners

UCL/MSSL, NASA GSFC (USA), Oslo University, Max Planck Institute, Garching.

Satellite orbiting with sun in background

RAL Space's role in this mission

RAL is a PI group for the Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer (CDS). It led the development of the CDS and its post-launch operations (1996 – 2014).

View of the SOHO Space Craft. Courtesy of SOHO consortium. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

Developing the Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer

The CDS recorded emission from the solar corona which is the hottest part of the solar atmosphere. The CDS team received and processed observing requests from the world-wide research community, prepare daily science plans and send them to their instrument operators at NASA for uploading to the spacecraft. Over the mission the team have worked closely with UK research groups at 15 universities across the country, and  also collaborated with 60 groups world-wide.

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