Epsilon S | SOLAR-C

mission

Name

SOLAR-C

Type

Heliophysics

Target orbit

Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO)

SOLAR-C is a Japan-led international mission with the cooperation by the US and European countries. It aims to gain new insights into the fundamental physical mechanisms driving solar plasma dynamics by performing three simultaneous UV observations. The first consists to observe the broad range of temperatures, spanning over three orders of magnitude from the 10,000 Kelvin chromosphere to the million Kelvin corona, and even to the 15 million Kelvin solar flares. The second consists to resolve the elemental structures at high spatial (0.4 arcsec) and temporal (1 sec) resolution and trace their evolutions by increasing the ability to collect the solar UV rays 10 to 30 times as much as before. The third consists to conduct a high dispersion spectroscopy (equivalent to a velocity resolution of 2 km/s) to obtain spectroscopic information that enables quantitative diagnostics (such as velocity, temperature, density, ionization degree, and abundance). By combining the three observations, SOLAR-C can analyze the dynamically evolving solar atmospheres over a wide altitude range from the chromosphere to the corona while resolving elemental structures.

schedule

NET (no earlier than)

Nov 30, 2028, 00:00 UTC

Window opens

Nov 30, 2028, 00:00 UTC

Window closes

Nov 30, 2028, 00:00 UTC

Last updated

Feb 14, 2025, 09:59 UTC

vehicle & provider

Rocket

Epsilon S

Family

Epsilon

Variant

S

Provider

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

Type

Government

Country

JPN