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.