SOLAR was an

ESA , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...

science observatory on the Columbus Laboratory, which is part of the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...

. SOLAR was launched with Columbus on February 2008 aboard

STS-122 STS-122 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS), flown by the . STS-122 marked the 24th shuttle mission to the ISS, and the 121st Space Shuttle flight overall. The mission was also referred to as ISS-1E by the ...

. It was externally mounted to Columbus with the European Technology Exposure Facility (EuTEF). SOLAR has three main space science instruments: SOVIM
SOLSPEC
and SOL-ACES. Together they provide detailed measurements of the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

spectral irradiance In radiometry, irradiance is the radiant flux ''received'' by a ''surface'' per unit area. The SI unit of irradiance is the watt per square metre (W⋅m−2). The CGS unit erg per square centimetre per second (erg⋅cm−2⋅s−1) is often used ...

. The SOLAR platform and its instruments are controlled from th
Belgian User Support and Operations Centre
(B.USOC), located at th
Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy
(BISA) in

Uccle Uccle () or Ukkel () is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. In common with all of Brussels' municipalities, it is legally bilingual (French–Dutch). It is generally considered an affluent area of the city an ...

, Belgium.

Instruments

*SOVIM (''So''lar ''V''ariability and ''I''rradiance ''M''onitor) instrument is based on an earlier instrument (SOVA) which flew aboard the European Retrievable Carrier, launched on

STS-46 STS-46 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission using and was launched on July 31, 1992, and landed on August 8, 1992. Crew Backup crew Crew seating arrangements Mission highlights The mission's primary objectives were the deployment o ...

in 1992. It is designed to measure

solar radiation Solar irradiance is the power per unit area (surface power density) received from the Sun in the form of electromagnetic radiation in the wavelength range of the measuring instrument. Solar irradiance is measured in watts per square metre (W/ ...

with wavelengths from 200 nanometers - 100 micrometers. This covers near-

ultraviolet Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiatio ...

visible Visibility, in meteorology, is a measure of the distance at which an object or light can be seen. Visibility may also refer to: * A measure of turbidity in water quality control * Interferometric visibility, which quantifies interference contrast ...

and

infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...

areas of the spectrum.
SOLSPEC
(''Sol''ar ''Spec''tral irradiance measurements) is designed to measure the solar spectral irradiance in the 165- to 3000-nanometer range with high spectral resolution. *SOL-ACES (''A''uto-''c''alibrating ''E''xtreme Ultraviolet and Ultraviolet spectrometer''s'') consists of four grazing incidence grating spectrometers. They are designed to measure the EUV/UV spectral regime (17 nanometers - 220 nanometers) with moderate spectral resolution.

Mission

The mission was originally planned for a 2003 launch, but was delayed following the

Space Shuttle Columbia disaster The Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disaster was a fatal accident in the United States space program that occurred on February 1, 2003. During the STS-107 mission, Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disintegrated as it reentered the atmosphere over Texa ...

. Some other components are also planned to be mounted externally on Columbus on future missions, including the Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space (ACES). Another name for SOLAR may be Solar Monitoring Observatory or SMO. In 2012, the entire 450-tonne station was rotated so SOLAR could observe a full rotation of the Sun continuously. A Solar rotation takes about 24–28 days depending on the latitude. SOLAR's mission ended in 2017 with the failure of all but one of its instruments. On the morning of January 28, 2020 SOLAR was removed from FRAM 1 where it rested since it was delivered on STS 122 and strapped to the side of

Cygnus NG-12 NG-12, previously known as OA-12, was the thirteenth flight of the Northrop Grumman robotic resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its twelfth Commercial Resupply Services flight to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. The mission launched ...

with the SDS placed on the other side. SOLAR was released from the station on February 3, 2020 and burnt up in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean on March 13, 2020 ending the mission which spent a decade photographing the sun.

Visuals

References

External links

SOLAR at eoPortal
(includes photo gallery) {{ESA projects Science facilities on the International Space Station Columbus (ISS module) Missions to the Sun Crewed space observatories Solar observatories Ultraviolet telescopes

Instruments

Mission

Visuals

See also

References

External links