Hinode's solar data ready for Europe's access (Forwarded)

ESA News
http://www.esa.int

30 May 2007

Hinode's solar data ready for Europe's access

Since 27 May, Europe's scientists have free access to spectacular data and
images from Hinode, a Japan-led mission with ESA participation that
studies the mechanisms that power the Sun's atmosphere and cause violent
eruptions.

This free access is now possible thanks to the opening of the Hinode
Science Data Centre in Norway, developed and run by the Institute of
Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Oslo on behalf of ESA and
the Norwegian Space Centre. It is part of ESA and Norway's joint
contribution to this solar mission.

The other part of the joint contribution to Hinode consists of ground
station coverage through the SvalSat downlink station at Svalbard, which
nearly quadruples the data rate and thus significantly increases Hinode's
science return. Svalsat is the only station in the world that can receive
Hinode's data during each of its 15 daily orbits.

"Our European solar science community is extremely strong. We have several
space missions with ESA leadership, or strong European participation,
which are producing outstanding results about the Sun and its interaction
with the planetary environment," says Bernhard Fleck, ESA's SOHO and
Hinode Project Scientist.

"When ESA, in a joint venture with Norway, decided to contribute to
Hinode, it was to broaden the possibilities for European scientists to
participate in this exciting new mission and at the same time increase the
science possibilities for the worldwide scientific community," he
continues.

In exchange for ESA's and Norway's contribution to the mission, European
scientists have been guaranteed free access to the Hinode data by the
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

"No doubt European scientists will make great use of this data and will
produce excellent new science about our daylight star," concludes Fleck.

The quality of data now available through the Hinode Science Data Centre
can be appreciated in spectacular movies of the Sun, obtained by the XRT
X-ray telescope on board, made public on 27 May by the National
Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ).

The first X-ray movie was obtained between January and April 2007. It
shows the medium-term evolution of the dynamic solar corona. The corona is
a portion of the solar atmosphere that extends for millions of kilometres
into space and is much hotter than the solar surface -- a puzzle still not
completely understood by scientists.

The second movie, obtained on 16 March 2007, provides a close-up view of
X-ray-bright points in what is believed to be a quiet region of the Sun's
surface. The high resolution of the XRT instrument helped scientists see
that these X-ray-bright points -- widely distributed -- are actually
'loop' structures demonstrating intense activity.

"Data like this, being gathered by Hinode since it started operating in
October 2006, is a treasure chest for our scientists," says Stein Vidar
Hagfors Haugan, Executive Director of the data centre. "With the archiving
system developed in our data centre, innovative in terms of contextual
searching capability and speed, we believe we are providing a great
contribution to maximising the scientific return of this new exciting
mission."

Notes for editors

Hinode is a Japanese mission developed and launched by ISAS/JAXA, with
NAOJ as domestic partner and NASA and STFC (former PPARC, UK) as
international partners. It is operated by these agencies in co-operation
with ESA and the Norwegian Space Centre.

For more information:

Stein Vidar Hagfors Haugan
Executive Director, Hinode Science Data Centre Europe
Email: s.v.h.haugan @ astro.uio.no

Bernhard Fleck
ESA SOHO and Hinode Project Scientist
Email: bfleck @ esa.nascom.nasa.gov

[NOTE: Images supporting this release are available at
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMKPG9RR1F_index_1.html ]