Solar Dynamics Observatory ready for launch(Update 02-10-10)

Russ Steele

Update #1: NASA has postponed for one day the scheduled launch of a rocket carrying a solar probe.
The space agency plans to launch an Atlas V rocket carrying its Solar Dynamics Observatory, which it says will study the sun "in greater detail than ever before."

After delaying the launch three times because of windy conditions Wednesday at Cape Canaveral, Florida, NASA said it will try again Thursday, with a launch window of 10:23 a.m. to 11:23 a.m. ET.

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The sun is still a great mystery to scientists.  Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is on a  five year mission that scientists hope will help unravel the mysteries of how the sun's magnetic field affects the rest of our solar system. 

From the SatNew.com:

SDO will help us understand the sun’s energy production mechanisms, the interior workings of the sun, and the ways in which energy is stored and released in the sun’s atmosphere. Improved understanding of the sun and its function will enable better prediction and forecasting of space weather and earlier warnings to protect astronauts and satellites as they perform their missions. SDO will collect huge amounts of data, enough data to fill a single CD every 36 seconds. Because SDO has no on-board recording system, SDO will be placed in a geosynchronous orbit (GSO) such that it maintains a constant position directly above Earth’s equator that allows constant communication with its dedicated ground station in New Mexico.

SDO carries instruments that allow it to measure the extreme-ultraviolet spectral irradiance of the sun at a rapid rate. Other SDO mission objectives include measuring doppler shifts in oscillation velocities over the entire visible disk, making high-resolution measurements of the longitudinal and vector magnetic field over the entire visible disk, making images of the chromosphere (the thin layer of the sun’s atmosphere just above its visible surface) and the inner corona (the outer layer of the sun's atmosphere) at several temperatures at a rapid rate, and making those measurements over an 11-year solar cycle to capture any solar variations.

After months of quiet sunspot activity the sun has become more active.  A good time for the SDO to be on station.  Spaceweather.com has the details on the latest sunspot activity.