Guangming Daily reporter Qi Fang
Kuafu chasing the sun is a myth that countless Chinese people have been familiar with since childhood. Today, myth is becoming a reality - China's advanced space-based solar observatory, China's comprehensive solar exploration satellite, is trying to unveil the mystery of the sun!
"Since the 1960s, the world's major space powers have launched sixty or seventy satellites related to solar exploration, , and my country has been absent from solar exploration dedicated satellites. Although my country's solar physics science papers rank among the world's top, we are really embarrassed to say that we are at the forefront of international solar physics." "Kuafu-1" chief scientist and researcher at the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Gan Weiqun said, "Now, we can proudly say that 'Kuafu-1' will realize me National solar satellite exploration leapfrog breakthrough! We will make more original contributions to solar research! "
rocket launch picture Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center provided by
Three "international firsts" aimed at the sun "one magnet and two storms"
About 4.6 billion years ago, on the spiral arm about 26,000 light years from the center of Milky Way galaxy, a cluster of molecular clouds began to collapse under its own gravity, gradually forming the sun. The sun is our "family star". All production and life on the earth are closely related to the sun, but its occasionally bursting of "small temper" will also hinder us - Solar Storm "blowing" huge ejected matter and energy into near-Earth space, which can cause strong disturbances to the earth's space environment such as the Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere, and middle and high-level atmosphere, thereby affecting human activities.
solar activity changes periodically, with an average period of 11 years. The year when the number of sunspots reaches the largest number, which is called the peak year of solar activity, is the time when solar activity is the most intense. According to scientists, 2024 to 2025 will be the 25th peak of solar activity. Gan Weiqun said: "We chose to launch 'Kuafu-1' at this time to better understand the sun. Its design life span is no less than 4 years and can basically cover the maximum period of the peak year of the sun. This is very beneficial for our scientific research and the realization of satellite scientific goals."
The scientific goal of "Kuafu-1" is "one magnet and two storms". Gan Weiqun said: "This word was proposed specifically for this satellite. 'magnetic' is the magnetic field, and 'two storms' are the two most violent bursts on the sun - flare and coronal mass ejection. We are going to study the relationship between these three, namely the relationship between magnetic field and flare, the relationship between magnetic field and coronal mass ejection, and the relationship between coronal mass ejection and flare; study their formation, evolution, interaction and possible causal relationships, and provide support for space weather warnings."
In order to achieve this goal, from the concept proposal to the development of payloads, and then to the system integration, "Kuafu-1" has made many original innovations. Gan Weiqun summarized it as three international firsts: for the first time in the world, "one magnet and two storms" are used as the scientific target of satellites and the corresponding load combination is configured; for the first time in the world, the full-day surface vector magnetic field, solar flare non-thermal radiation imaging, the sun surface formation of coronal material ejection and the recent coronal propagation are observed simultaneously on a near-Earth satellite; for the first time in the international world, the full-day surface and near-Corneal seamless simultaneous imaging observation is achieved in the Lehmann Alpha spectral line band.
Three major loads "uninterrupted" observation of the sun
" Kuafu No. 1" weighs about 859 kg, and the dimension after entering the orbit is 2105 mm x 9184 mm x 2456 mm. In such a space, scientists properly placed three major loads to make Kuafu One highly capable: the full-day vector magnetograph (FMG), the Lehmann Alpha Solar Telescope (LST) and the hard X-ray imager (HXI), which observe solar magnetic field , coronal mass ejection and solar flare respectively.
"Every instrument has its own characteristics." Zhu Cheng, chief engineer of the "Kuafu-1" satellite system, researcher at the Institute of Microsatellite Innovation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, introduced:
- a full-day vector magnetograph, tracking the source of solar activity.The measurement target of FMG is the magnetic field of the solar sphere. The vector magnetic field data obtained can not only help us deeply understand the energy accumulation, triggering, release and transmission mechanisms during the ejection of flares and coronal matter, but also help us more accurately study the forecast model of solar burst activity and provide an observation basis for more accurate spatial weather forecasts.
—Lyman Alpha solar telescope, a new window for solar observation. The LST load consists of three instruments, which will conduct imaging observations of the full-sun surface and near corona of the sun. Its main scientific task is to observe violent solar outbreak activities such as corona material ejection and flares, and provide observation data support for the internal corona for space weather forecasts. Observations of LST loads in the Lymann Alpha band will fill the gap in international continuous observations of this band from full-day surface to internal corona.
- Hard X-ray imager, peeking into the storm under the veil of tranquility. HXI consists of three independent single machines in structure: collimator , energy meter and electronic control box , which can be compared with the lens in the camera, CCD and the control system respectively. The main scientific goal of HXI is to conduct energy spectrum and imaging observation of hard X-ray radiation of solar flares in the 30keV to 200keV energy segment. It is the only known solar high-energy imaging instrument that provides Earth's perspective observation during the peak year of the 25th week of solar activity. It is of great significance to study the formation and evolution mechanism of flares non- thermal radiation sources and particle acceleration process.
There are also "ways" to choose tracks for "Kuafu No. 1". Zhu Cheng said: "Selecting a 720-kilometer-high morning and evening sun synchronization orbit to provide a good environment with a relatively low particle background for the hard X-ray imager, and it is conducive to reducing the imaging interference of atmospheric scattering of rays on the Lyman Alpha solar telescope. This orbit only has a short earth shadow for about 3 months throughout the year, and the other time is full sunlight, so the solar observation can be carried out for a long time."
makes more original and significant contributions in solar physics research
"Kuafu 1" can provide scientists with 500GB of scientific data every day for scientists to conduct solar physics research. Li Hui, chief scientific application system of Kuafu-1 and researcher at the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: "After the launch of the Kuafu-1 satellite, it will undergo a period of in-orbit testing. After the test is normal, it will be open to scientific researchers in related fields around the world in real time and free of charge according to international practices."
There are dozens of special or related solar exploration satellites in the international community. In recent years, my country has launched China's first solar exploration science and technology test satellite " Xihe ", and the United States has also launched the Parker solar probe. Is it necessary for China to launch a brand new solar exploration satellite?
Gan Weiqun's answer is: Of course it is necessary!
Gan is a group explanation. "Park" is a satellite that flies near the sun for observation. "This also means it will be subjected to very strong thermal radiation and cannot directly image the sun. Therefore, "Park" can only locally detect particles, magnetic fields and solar environments such as solar wind in the solar atmosphere. "Kafu-1" directly "looks" the sun, observes the sun by telemetry and remote sensing means, and images the sun, which is inconsistent with "Park" in terms of scientific goals and can complement each other."
and "Xihe" is a scientific experimental satellite, with the main goal of technically verifying a satellite platform - the "double super" platform. Gan Weiqun introduced that the "Kuafu-1" satellite was specially proposed for solar observation and is a space science satellite project that is completely traction with scientific goals. So the term "space science satellite" is different from "Xihe". In addition, the "Xihe" and "Kuafu No. 1" are different in terms of scientific goals, observation objects, observation bands, etc.
" According to statistics, around 2010, China's total number of papers published in the field of solar physics was ranked second in the world. But most of the observation data we use to write papers comes from international solar satellites."Gan Weiqun said, "It is in this context that we proposed the advanced space-based solar observatory satellite project in 2011. Now, everything is ready, let's look at China! ”
( Guangming Daily Beijing, October 9)
"Guangming Daily" (09 edition, October 10, 2022)
Source: Guangming.com-Guangming Daily
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