The Spooky Sun/Hinode Early Operations and Near-Future Plans (Forwarded)

Public Affairs Department
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

For more information, contact:

David A. Aguilar, Director of Public Affairs
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
617-495-7462

Christine Pulliam, Public Affairs Specialist
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Phone: 617-495-7463, Fax: 617-495-7016

For Immediate Release: October 31, 2006

Release No.: 06-29

The Spooky Sun

Cambridge, MA -- Just in time for Halloween, astronomers have taken a
haunting new portrait of the sun. In this color-coded image from the Hinode
spacecraft, the sun glows eerily orange as though celebrating with earthly
spooks.

The photograph shows the sun's corona -- the top layer of the sun's
atmosphere, a region of extremely rarefied gases heated to millions of
degrees. During the current, quiet phase of solar activity (sunspot
minimum), the corona is dominated by small regions of closed magnetic field
(called X-ray Bright Points) and large dark areas where the magnetic field
of the sun extends into interplanetary space (called Coronal Holes). There
is also a low level of activity as a few small active regions emerge from
inside the sun.

The bright region in the inset box shows magnetic fields that have just
emerged from the solar interior, producing a new active region.

When the image is seen at full resolution, compact loops of 3-million-degree
gas are clearly seen. Movies made from sequences of images will show how the
corona evolves, and what conditions lead to the entire range of solar
activity from flares and large-scale eruptions to small-scale magnetic
reconnection events and explosive jets.

The Hinode spacecraft (formerly Solar-B) carries three telescopes. This
image was taken with the X-ray Telescope developed jointly by the
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) and the Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency (JAXA). Hinode's X-ray Telescope is the highest
resolution solar X-ray telescope ever flown. It will show the structure and
dynamics of the corona over a wide range of temperatures and a broad field
of view.

Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics (CfA) is a joint collaboration between the Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory. CfA
scientists, organized into six research divisions, study the origin,
evolution and ultimate fate of the universe.


Note to editors: High-resolution images to accompany this release are online
at
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/press/pr0629image.html

*****

Public Affairs Department
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Marunouchi Kitaguchi Building
1-6-5, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8260
Japan
TEL:+81-3-6266-6400

JAXA WEB SITE:
http://www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html

October 31, 2006

Hinode Early Operations and Near-Future Plans

The sun-observing Hinode satellite (formerly Solar-B) of the Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was launched from the Uchinoura
Space Center, Kagoshima Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan, on September 22,
2006 at 21:36 GMT, aboard the seventh in JAXA's series of M-V rockets.
For two weeks the satellite carried out orbit adjustments, and is now
in a sun-synchronous orbit, which allows it to observe the sun for
uninterrupted periods lasting months at a time.

Hinode contains three instruments dedicated to observing the sun:
the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT), the X-Ray Telescope (XRT), and
the EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS).Each of the instruments have
now opened their protective doors and successfully commenced test
observations. Consequently, JAXA announces that the primary
post-launch events of the satellite have been completed.

Currently, Hinode's power systems and attitude pointing are stable. For
approximately the next month, activities will progress from testing
the basic operational aspects of the telescopes, to implementing the
scientific operation mode. During this period, from time to time we
plan to release images and telescope-performance information on the
homepage for each instrument, or through other sources. We expect to
complete adjustments of the instruments and enter the scientific
observation phase of the mission early in December 2006. At that time
we intend to release a summary of initial scientific findings obtained
from the test images.

Below is an outline of the initial instrument performance and plans
for near-future Hinode activities.

1) SOT opened its front door on October 25, and immediately began
taking engineering test images and performing focus adjustments.
Attachment 1 shows an image taken during this testing phase with
SOT's broadband filter. From this and similar images we have
confirmed that SOT is achieving very high spatial resolution of 0.2
arcseconds, a primary objective of the instrument. We also have
determined that the spectropolarimeter, SOT's primary instrument
for detailed measurements of the solar magnetic field, is exceeding
its expected levels of performance. Currently, however, proper
performance of SOT's narrowband filter is limited to only a portion
of the filter's field of view. The SOT instrument team is
investigating measures to overcome this issue.

2) Shortly after launch, XRT experienced unexpectedly high
temperatures near the front of the telescope tube. This resulted in
its front door opening earlier than expected. Nonetheless, it
successfully commenced taking high quality test images on October
23, and has been performing well ever since (attachment 2). We
have verified that the telescope is meeting its expected level of
performance, and the test images show that its observing
capabilities exceed those of the highly successful soft X-ray
telescope of the Yohkoh satellite, with spatial resolution reaching
nearly 1 arcsecond.

3) EIS opened its door on October 28 and immediately began taking
"spectroscopic imaging" data, allowing us to verify that it is
operating properly. This instrument takes spectroscopic images using
either a spectroscopic slit or a wider "slot." Data from EIS
consist of mixed positional and wavelength information. We plan to
release more complete test images after completing the analysis
needed to extract the imaging information from the raw data. A
preliminary spectral image is shown in attachment 3.

IMAGE CAPTIONS:

[Figure 1:
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2006/10/200..._e.html#pic01]
SOT First Light image.

[Figure 2:
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2006/10/200..._e.html#pic02]
An image of the sun's corona from XRT.

[Figure 3:
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2006/10/200..._e.html#pic03]
First Light results from EIS.

[Reference images for Figure 2:
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2006/10/200...e_e.html#at02]
(1 and 2) Full-disk solar images from XRT.
(3) Comparison between Hinode/XRT and Yohkoh/SXT coronal images.