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STEREO

Overview

NASA’s STEREO mission launched two spacecraft in solar orbit to provide a 3D view of the Sun and track coronal mass ejections as they travel through space towards Earth, improving understanding and prediction of space weather. STEREO-A spacecraft continues to study the Sun.

RAL Space involvement

RAL Space led the development of the Heliospheric Imager instruments, enabling wide-angle imaging of solar material moving through space. The team also developed the CCD camera systems used across the spacecraft.
Launch Date
October 2006
Focus
Solar and space physics
Partners
University of Birmingham, UK, Centre Spatial de Liege, Belgium, Naval Research Laboratory, USA

An artist's concept shows one of the STEREO spacecraft in orbit around the Sun. Credit: NASA

Three boxes side by side showing bursts of coronal mass.

​​​​​​​​​​​Sequence of images taken by the Heliospheric Imager on the STEREO-A spacecraft, illustrating the propagation of a coronal mass ejection through the field of view. Credit STFC.

Instrument Overview

Heliospheric Imager

The Heliospheric Imager (HI) is a wide-angle visible-light imaging system for the detection of coronal mass ejection (CME) events in interplanetary space and, in particular, of events directed towards the Earth.  These instruments are being used to identify and track coronal mass ejections as they propagate through interplanetary space, with particular focus on those that are directed towards the Earth. When combined with data from near-Earth spacecraft, and observatories on the ground, the STEREO data will enable scientists to identify and track in 3D those CMEs that propagate towards Earth and investigate their effects on Earth’s environment, as well as studying the processes on the Sun associated with their launch. In addition to leading the STEREO/HI instruments, all of the imaging instruments aboard both STEREO spacecraft use a CCD-based camera system developed by RAL Space.

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