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The Naval Research Laboratory’s heliospheric imager, or SoloHI, is one of 10 instruments that will be on the European Space Agency’s solar orbiter mission. SoloHI will provide revolutionary measurements to pinpoint solar storms known as coronal mass ejections or CMEs.

Likened by some to solar hurricanes, CMEs travel from 100 to more than 3,000 kilometers per second. Their disruption of communications and power systems on Earth is a serious concern.

The solar orbiter observatory will travel closer to the sun than any other spacecraft and will conduct scienti c investigations ranging from near-sun and out-of-ecliptic measurements to observing the sun and its environment.

SECCHI is a suite of five scientific telescopes that observe the solar corona and inner heliosphere from the surface of the Sun to the orbit of Earth. It ies on STEREO, which is composed of twin NASA spacecraft.

Launched in October of 2006 from the Kennedy Space Center, SECCHI provides data for understanding solar activity, including Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs). SECCHI provides data that helps to answer such questions as: How does a CME start? What increases its speed? How does it interact with the heliosphere? How does it cause disturbances in space weather?

Space Systems Research Corporation personnel served as program manager, deputy program manager, and deputy mission operations manager. Working day-to-day with NASA, SSRC’s roles included managing the design, fabrication, integration, testing, and calibration. SSRC also ensured delivery of the program, integrating it with the STEREO spacecraft, and provided launch support and mission operations. In conjunction with its day-to-day operations, SSRC also managed 18 subcontractors and three foreign partners that provided hardware elements and technical support.

SSRC was brought onto SECCHI at a time when cost and schedule issues were impacting the program. SSRC worked with NRL’s SECCHI team and NASA’s STEREO management to restructure the program and move it on to a highly successful mission. Note: SECCHI is named for the Italian astrophysicists Angelo Pietro Secchi (1818-1878) who used photography to record solar eclipses.

GOES, or NOAA’s Geostationery satellite system, works around the clock providing the kind of continuous monitoring necessary for intensive data analysis. It provides constant watch for atmospheric “triggers” for tornadoes, ash oods, hail storms, and hurricanes, and space weather.

Soon after the launch of GOES-N, SSRC led a team of experts to investigate and validate portions of the Post Launch Test (PLT) period data. SSRC used the as-built sensor drawings to create an end-to-end mathematical model of the instrument. Using this model, the team studied the optimal and non-optimal alignments of the sensor. Results were evaluated and algorithms developed to provide data processing corrections and validate the performance of the sensor.