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ROB/SIDC has successfully passed the Flight Acceptance Review of its Science Operations Centre for PROBA-3/ASPIICS

PROBA3 Operations Centre in development
A committee consisting of experts in software development, space mission operations, and science was appointed by ESA to follow the SOC development and to review it at regular intervals. The Flight Acceptance Review was the last in the series of reviews. It had to certify that the SOC is built following the pre-defined scientific and technical requirements. The committee has thoroughly inspected the SOC software and associated documentation. In April 2022, it concluded that the SOC satisfies all the requirements and the Flight Acceptance Review of the ASPIICS SOC is successfully closed.

A Patchwork Image of the Sun

Patchwork of the Sun
On 7 March, 2022, the high-resolution telescope of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) onboard the Solar Orbiter spacecraft made a mosaic image of the solar disk. Over a period of more than 4 hours, the satellite aimed at different positions each time capturing a small square of the Sun at very high resolution. These images were then stitched together like a patchwork. The result was an extremely detailed image of the entire Sun.

Partial Solar Eclipse of March 20th 2015

The partial solar eclipse on March 20th 2015 has been observed in Humain by the 6-m dish radio telescope connected to a e-Callisto receiver. The instrument has recorded the solar flux as the Moon passes in front of the Sun.

In the mean time, another instrument, measuring the sky luminosity in visible light, has also detected a drop of a few percent during that event. This instrument is used by astronomers from ROB to assess the opportunity to observe on certain days, at night.

X1.0 flare of October 28 2021

 

NOAA AR region 2887 produced a X1.0 flare on October 28 2021, peaking at 15:35 UT. It was associated with a large coronal wave, a halo CME and a proton event. More information can be found in this STCE news item.

This eruptive event was observed at the very end of the normal observing window, when the 6-m radio telescope stops tracking the Sun and waits for about 30 min before going back to a "parking" position, at the local south.

Solar Orbiter returns to Earth for a last goodbye

Earth_flyby
On 27 November 2021, the Solar Orbiter spacecraft returns from its voyages in deep space, and will pass at only a few hundred kilometers above the Earth's surface. This manoeuvre is needed to get Solar Orbiter in a new orbit to go yet closer to the Sun. During this flyby, Solar Orbiter unfortunately needs to cross the clouds of space junk that surround Earth, making it a risky visit to our planet.

New extended hemispheric sunspot numbers

On July 19, 2021, we added a new time series to our data products: extended hemispheric sunspot numbers starting in 1874. Those reconstructed numbers are based on the sunspot areas listed in the Greenwich photographic catalogue, and are calibrated on the SILSO reference hemispheric series, which starts only in 1992. This newly published series results from a collaboration between SILSO, the University of Graz (Austria) and the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Moscow, Russia).

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