Monday, February 5, 2024

09 April 2024 Lunar Transit (08 April for North America)

On April 8, 2024, a large swath of North America will enjoy a Total Solar Eclipse from Mazatlán up through Texas to Maine and the Maritime Provinces of Canada. Although those along the path of totality will enjoy a beautiful view of the solar corona, SDO will only see a short, almost glancing transit of the Moon across the Sun long after the TSE ends. The SDO transit starts at 03:29 UTC on 9 Feb 2024 (10:29 pm EDT on 8 Feb 2024), 7 hours after the TSE ends on the ground.

Here is a movie from the SDO Flight Dynamics Team showing the transit.

The transit will only cover 5% of the solar disk.

If you live in Mexico, USA, or Eastern Canada, please go watch the Total Solar Eclispe. They are a wonderful way to see the Sun in a different light.

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Station Keeping maneuver #28 today

SDO will execute Station Keeping maneuver #28 today from 2315-2400 UTC (6:15-7:00 pm ET). During a maneuver SDO science data may be missing or blurred. These maneuvers are needed to maintain SDO's assigned position as it passes through the geostationary orbit belt.

Thursday, June 8, 2023

18 Jun 2023 Lunar Transit

Between 0557--0612 UTC (01:57--02:12 ET) on 18 Jun 2023, SDO is experience a brief lunar transit. The Moon will cover about 3% of the Sun, but because it will pass over the top diode SDO will leave science mode during the transit.

Here is the Flight Ops Team movie of the transit

I hope everyone is enjoying SDO's view of the Sun as we near the maximum of Solar Cycle 25!

20 May 2023 Lunar Transit and the Long-term Predicts for the 3rd Quarter of 2023

The 2023-094 FDS Quarterly (Long-Set) Predicts have been delivered. They include events through 05 Nov 2023. The highlights are:
  • 20 May 2023, 0222--0306 UTC (22:22--23:06 ET) - LunTran_2023140_3dc_82pshdw
  • 18 Jun 2023, 0557--0612 UTC (01:57--02:12 ET) - LunTran_2023169_1dc_3pshdw
  • 21 Jun 2023, TBD - Tentative date for Momentum Management Maneuver #47
  • 04 Jul 2023, 1148 UTC (07:48 ET) - Handover Season Starts with First Handover (-Z HGA Active Prior)
  • 20 Jul 2023, 0725 UTC (03:25 ET) - Eclipse Season Starts
  • 26 Jul 2023, TBD - Tentative Date for Station Keeping Maneuver #27
  • 04 Aug 2023, 1913--1919 UTC (15:13--1519 ET) - Solar RFI
  • 05 Aug 2023, 1910--1918 UTC (15:10--1518 ET) - Solar RFI
  • 06 Aug 2023, 1909--1916 UTC (15:09--15:19 ET) - Solar RFI
  • 15 Aug 2023, 0248 UTC (22:48 ET) - Handover Season Ends with Completion of Last Handover (+Z HGA Active After)
  • 16 Aug 2023, 0659 UTC (02:59 ET) - Eclipse Season Ends
  • 05 Nov 2023, 0200 ET - Daylight Saving Time Ends, GSFC Local Time now UTC-5:00
(All dates and times in parentheses are GSFC Local time.)

Here is a movie of the predicted 20 May 2023 lunar transit:

And here is what a daily movie shows for that date:

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

EVE Calibration Rocket, May 3, 2023, Streaming on NASA TV

All is Go for the launch of the SDO EVE calibration rocket (NASA #36.389) on May 3. The EVE Team has approvals from NASA, WSMR (White Sands Missile Range, where the flight will occur), and the Navy (who run the launch pad) for a launch window of 18:10-18:40 UTC (2:30 PM - 2:40 PM ET). The weather forecast for White Sands, NM, is also looking good.

The EVE sounding rocket used to calibrate the SDO EVE instrument launches from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in 2015. (Image courtesy LASP.)

NASA TV will stream the launch starting at 11:45 AM MDT (1:45 pm ET) at the link https://video.ibm.com/channel/nasa-tv-wallops.

Enjoy!

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Calibration Activities Today 1700-2030 UTC

The SDO Team will power cycle Inertial Reference Unit #2 (IRU-2) today. These cold starts are used to maintain the IRUs and ensure their longevity. The spacecraft will execute a series of off-point maneuvers after the power cycle. These will be done in all three axes, so images will appear to move left to right, nod up and down, and roll to and fro. Once the testing and calibrations are over SDO will return to routine science data collection.

During the calibration activity science data may be missing, blurred, or shifted.

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Website Status Update - Data Outage

Power is out at the Stanford data site due to the current atmospheric river. Power is being restored to the university and the JSOC should be back in operations soon. The data is stored at the SDO ground station and will be available once power is restored.