The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite has been launched in February 2010. SDO is the first mission of the Living With a Star (LWS) NASA program to be in operation. SDO is dedicated to the study of the solar atmosphere focusing on the coupling between the magnetic field and the plasma, and the impact of the solar activity on the Earth's atmosphere.
UCLan is one of the European data centres for SDO and the only one in the UK to provide a rolling database for two SDO instruments in near-real time: the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) and the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI). The development of the database is supported by the Learning and Information Services (LIS) at UCLan.
SDO/AIA latest image of the Sun at a temperature of 50000K (left) and 0.6 MK (right). The images are updated every 30 minutes. Click on the image to see a larger version. More real-time images are available at The Sun Today.
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The solar group at UCLan is working on several topics to understand fundamental solar and plasma physics problems:
o Coronal heating of active region loops
o Flux emergence of active regions and their coronal consequences
o Magnetohydrodynamic waves in the solar atmosphere
o Small scale eruptive events such as blinkers
o Flares and CMEs, magnetic structures and enegetic particles
Last updated: 1::1 01/y /11 M
Author: Stephane Regnier
