Space & Cosmos

NOAA releases images of world’s first operational space-based coronagraph

Credit: NOAA Headquarters

NOAA today shared the first images from Compact Coronagraph (CCOR-1), a powerful solar telescope aboard its new GOES-19 satellite. CCOR-1, the world’s first operational space-based coronagraph, began observing the sun’s corona, the faint outermost layer of the solar atmosphere, on September 19, 2024.

CCOR-1 monitors the corona and predicts coronal mass ejections (CMEs). A CME is a massive ejection of plasma and magnetic fields from the Sun that can have space weather effects on Earth.

If CMEs are directed toward Earth, they can cause geomagnetic storms and other types of space weather, which could affect satellites, navigation systems such as GPS/GNSS, astronaut safety, aviation communications, and power grids. there is. On Earth, the familiar auroral displays are the visible manifestation of these storms interacting with Earth’s upper atmosphere.

CCOR-1 provides new images every 15 minutes, providing uninterrupted coverage of the coronavirus. CCOR-1 uses an occultation disk (the dark blue circle in the center of the video) to cover the Sun (depicted as a small white circle), allowing it to observe the very weak corona.

Credit: NOAA Headquarters

This first CCOR-1 video shows a clear CME emerging from the eastern edge of the Sun (on the left) around 10 o’clock, with Universal Time (UT) shown in the lower left. The Sun also dazzles with large and small streamers, bright radial structures in which solar plasma moves steadily outward. CME explosions bend and sometimes destroy the flowing plasma, flying through it at speeds of hundreds to thousands of miles per second.

CCOR-1 is the first in NOAA’s series of coronagraphs. Similar instruments will be installed on and around the Sun-Earth line as part of NOAA’s Space Weather Follow-On and Space Weather Next programs, respectively.

GOES-19 is currently undergoing post-launch testing and equipment and systems checkout. After GOES-19 is assigned the operational role as NOAA’s GOES East satellite in spring 2025, NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center will deploy CCOR-1 to inform and improve impending space weather forecasts and warnings. Start using observations.

Provided by NOAA Headquarters

Citation: NOAA releases image of world’s first operational space-based coronagraph (October 22, 2024) https://phys.org/news/2024-10-noaa-imagery-world-space-based Retrieved October 22, 2024 from .html

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