Understanding how the energy travels through this region – energy that helps heat the upper layer of the atmosphere, the corona, to temperatures of 1,000,000 kelvins, some thousand times hotter than the sun’s surface itself – is the goal of NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, scheduled to launch on June 26, 2013 from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Scientists wish to understand the interface region in exquisite detail, since energy flowing through this region has an effect on so many aspects of near-Earth space. For one thing, despite the intense amount of energy deposited into the interface region, only a fraction leaksthrough, but this fraction drives the solar wind, the constant stream of particles that flows out to fill the entire solar system. The interface region is also the source of most of the sun's ultraviolet emission, which impacts both the near-Earth space environment and Earth's climate.
IRIS's capabilities are uniquely tailored to unravel the interface region by providing both high-resolution images and a kind of data known as spectra, which can see many wavelengths at once. For its high-resolution images, IRIS will capture data on about one percent of the sun at a time. While these are relatively small snapshots, IRIS will be able to see very fine features, as small as 150 miles across.
Credit: NASA
Credit: NASA
Credit: NASA SDO; NASA/JAXA Hinode; GSFC
Credit: NASA SDO
Credit: JAXA/ISAS Hinode
Credit: JAXA/ISAS, Hinode
Credit: Dr. Alan Title, LMSAL
Credit: Prof. Mats Carlsson at Oslo University
Credit: Dr. Juan Sykora at LMSAL
Credit: Prof. Viggo Hansteen University of Oslo
Credit: Prof. Mats Carlsson, University of Oslo
Credit: Dr. Bart de Pontieu at LMSAL
Credit: LMSAL, LM ATC
Credit: LM photo
Credit: LM Photo
Credit: LM Photo
Credit: LMSAL
Credit: LM Video
Credit: PM Photo
Credit: LM Video
Credit: NASA/Kennedy Space Flight Center
The rocket is dropped from the L1011 and is in unpowered, guided flight for 5 sec
The first stage lights and burns for 72 sec, then coasts for 17 sec. The rocket is at 71km prior to lighting of the second stage.
The second stage lights and burns for 73 sec, then coasts for 37 sec. The fairing separates at 131 sec. The rocket is at 600km prior to the firing of the third stage
Third stage burns for 69 sec placing the observatory in orbit at approximately 660km.
Once the payload is at 660km, the third stage and payload separate, at 786 seconds and the third stage carries out maneuvers to clear the observatory orbit.
The observatory then deploys the solar arrays, acquires the sun, and begins a 30 day on-orbit checkout and commissioning phase. After a 21 day outgassing and checkout period, the front door is opened and checkout of the optical systems started.
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptural Image Lab
Credit: NASA/Ames Research Center
Credit: Analytical Graphics, Inc., STK/Lockheed-Martin/IRIS
Credit: NASA/IRIS
Credit: NASA/IRIS
Credit: NASA Ames Research Center/IRIS
NASA Ames Research Center/IRIS
Cleanroom b-roll, launch, deploy, and beauty pass animations.