SH035-01
The Solar Orbiter Mission – On its way to explore the Sun and heliosphere

Monday, 14 December 2020: 04:00
Virtual
Daniel Mueller, European Space Agency, ESTEC, SCI-SCP, Noordwijk, Netherlands, Yannis Zouganelis, European Space Agency, ESAC, Villanueva De La Can, Spain, Holly Robin Gilbert, NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, Teresa Nieves-Chinchilla, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, O C St Cyr, NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States and The Solar Orbiter Team
Recorded Presentation
Abstract:
Solar Orbiter, launched on 10 February 2020 (UTC), is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA. It is exploring the linkage between the Sun and the heliosphere and, during its first months of operation, has started to collect unique data at solar distances down to 0.51 AU. By ultimately approaching as close as 0.28 AU, Solar Orbiter will view the Sun with very high spatial resolution and combine this with in-situ measurements of the surrounding heliosphere. Over the course of the mission, the highly elliptical orbit will get progressively more inclined to the ecliptic plane. Thanks to this new perspective, Solar Orbiter will deliver images and comprehensive data of the unexplored Sun’s polar regions and the side of the Sun not visible from Earth. This talk will highlight first data from Solar Orbiter and provide a mission status update.
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