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Contenido archivado el 2022-12-23

Support for the SOHO solar maximum science programme

Objetivo

The space-based Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is a joint venture of ESA and NASA within the frame of the Solar Terrestrial Science Programme (STSP), the first "Cornerstone" of ESA's long-term programme "Space Science - Horizon 2000". The main scientific goals of the SOHO mission are a) to obtain a better understanding of the structure and dynamics of the solar interior using techniques of helioseismology, and b) to reach a better insight into the physical processes that form and heat the Sun's corona, maintain it and give rise to its acceleration into the solar wind.

At its 79th meeting on 18/19 February 1997 in Paris, ESA's Science Programme Committee unanimously approved the extension of the SOHO mission for a period of five years beyond its nominal life-time throughout the next solar maximum, allowing the study of the effects of the rise phase of the solar cycle on the solar interior, surface magnetic fields, corona, and solar wind. This, together with other missions of the International Solar Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) programme, provides an unprecedented opportunity, most likely not to be repeated for generations, to understand the activity cycle of the Sun and the terrestrial and heliospheric responses.

To ensure a successful mission and to maximize the scientific output it is crucial to have a close and efficient cooperation between SOHO and ground-based solar observatories (GBOs). Synoptic ground-based solar data (white light, CaK and H-alpha images, magnetograms, coronal maps, radio spectra and maps) are vitally needed both for science operations planning of the SOHO payload (target selection) as well as for correlative data analysis later on during the scientific exploitation of the SOHO data.

Here a network of FSU solar observatories is proposed to support the SOHO mission, for the following three main reasons:
1. To fill the "longitude gap" between the Far East and Europe in ground- based coverage by using existing infrastructure in the FSU, thus helping to achieve a complete 24-hours a day surveillance of the Sun.
2. To benefit from the expertise of FSU solar physicists in the analysis and interpretation of data from SOHO and joint campaigns with GBOs.
3. To help integrate FSU colleagues in the wider solar physics community and thereby give them the possibility to contribute to this exciting mission.

Convocatoria de propuestas

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Régimen de financiación

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Coordinador

European Space Agency (ESA)
Aportación de la UE
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Dirección
Keplerlaan 1
2200 AG Noordwijk
Países Bajos

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Coste total
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Participantes (8)