Wednesday, April 6, 2011

SDO Day 460: A Roll Maneuver

Today between 0554 and 1234 UT the SDO spacecraft rolled around the axis that points toward the Sun. This produced some oddities is the displayed images but the rotation angle was removed before the images were placed on the website. Rolls are done to help understand and calibrate the instruments. Although we can easily tell when we are pointed at the center of the Sun, without any continents on the Sun it is quite difficult to know how accurately the images are aligned with solar north. Rolls provide the extra information needed to align the instruments on the Sun.

Next maneuver is the EVE cruciform next week.