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 ]