last year can be called the "pathfinder" of my country's Sun Explorer Project, while "Kuafu One" is a versatile observer of the sun. It can observe the sun from ultraviolet, visible light and X-ray bands. The two sun-exploration satellites launched by my country each have their own focus and will jointly enhance my country's influence in the field of world solar physics research.
On the morning of October 9, my country's comprehensive solar exploration satellite "Kuafu-1" was launched on the Long March 2 Type D carrier rocket at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. satellite successfully entered the predetermined orbit, and the launch mission was a complete success.
"Kuafu No. 1" is the full Chinese name of Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S). It is another space science satellite developed and launched by the Chinese Academy of Sciences space science pilot project, following the " Wukong ", "Mozi", "huiyan", "practice 10", "taiji 1" and "huairou 1", which has achieved a leapfrog breakthrough in my country's space-based solar exploration satellite.
Researcher at the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and chief scientist of the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Gan Weiqun said that "Kuafu-1" will achieve three firsts as a special satellite for comprehensive solar exploration in my country: for the first time in the world, "one magnet and two storms" are used as a scientific goal 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 coronal propagation are observed simultaneously on a satellite platform; for the first time in the world, the full-day surface and coronal observations are achieved simultaneously in the Lehman Alpha band.
Last year, my country launched its first Sun-exploration satellite, Xihe, and this time, Kuafu-1 was also successfully launched. Although the observation tasks of " Kuafu " and "Xihe" are different, they may become the strongest partner of Chinese scientists' "chasing the Sun".
's main task is to observe "one magnet and two storms"
The sun is the closest star to the earth, and humans are full of curiosity about this dazzling "fireball".
"From the perspective of studying natural laws and natural sciences, the sun is a very good natural physics 'laboratory'. In addition to the physical processes inside the sun, the surface, atmosphere, magnetic field, structure, fluctuations, full-band radiation, plasma , fluid laws, etc. are all worth observing and studying." Gan Weiqun said.
Regarding the sun, the most concerned issue for ordinary people is always inseparable from the impact of the sun on the earth.
During Halloween in 2003, a strong magnetic storm broke out in the sun, causing a series of scientific satellites in Europe and the United States to suffer varying degrees of damage, resulting in interference in global satellite communications, and affected the global positioning system , and the positioning accuracy was deviated, resulting in different degrees of paralysis of some systems on the ground and space that require instant communication and positioning.
The reason is that the sun emits a large number of charged high-energy particles, causing serious damage to the earth's electromagnetic environment.
"The surface of the sun looks very calm, but it is actually very active. The reason is that the sun has a magnetic field, and the magnetic field is super messy. When the magnetic field gathers on the surface of the sun, sunspots will form. Sunspots are prone to cause solar prominences, flares and coronal material ejection." Gan Weiqun introduced that once the sun shows its power, it will have a significant impact on the earth. Not only will astronauts in space face danger, but they will also cause damage to the earth's power system and paralysis of communication systems...
Solar activity is a cycle of 11 years. According to estimates, 2024-2025 is the peak year of the 25th week of solar activity. Gan Weiqun said that "Kuafu-1" will take the peak year of the 25th week of solar activity as an opportunity to record in detail the " solar storm " during this period. In short, its main scientific goal is four words: "One magnet and two storms". The so-called "one magnet" is the magnetic field of the sun, and the "two bursts" are the two most violent outbreaks on the sun - flares and coronal material ejection.
"Observation and study the formation of solar magnetic field , flares and coronal material ejection, as well as their association and interaction, can promptly predict the impact of sun outbreaks on humans and provide support for space weather warnings." Gan Weiqun explained.
It is calculated that once the sun experiences coronal mass ejection and other phenomena, scientists can obtain information at least 40 hours before it affects the earth, so as to take timely protection to avoid possible losses.
"Kuafu" and "Xihe" have their own advantages
In recent years, the field of solar physics research has been very popular. my country launched "Xihe" last year, and now there is "Kuafu". What is the difference between these two Sun-exploring satellites?
It is reported that the "Xihe" satellite launched in October last year is the full name of the solar Hα spectral detection and dual super platform scientific and technological test satellite. It mainly verifies the satellite's "dual super" platform from a technical perspective, which is to use the two indicators of high-precision pointing and pointing stability to conduct experiments.
Hα band ground telescope can also be observed, but it is more advantageous to observe in space. The telescope equipped on the "Xihe" can continuously observe the sun, overcome a series of problems caused by the jitter of the earth's atmosphere, and can spectral scanning of the entire sun in a short time, and image every spectral point in the scan wavelength range. Its scientific goal is solar chromospheric dynamics.
"And 'Kuafu-1' is a space science satellite project specially proposed for observing the sun and is completely driven by scientific goals. Therefore, 'Kuafu' is classified as a space science satellite. It is completely different from 'Xihe' in terms of scientific goals, observation objects, observation bands, etc.," said Gan Weiqun.
reporter learned that "Kuafu One" carries three instrument loads, namely a full-day vector magnetograph that specializes in observing the solar magnetic field, a solar hard X-ray imager that specializes in observing the solar flares, and a Lehman Alpha solar telescope that specializes in observing the coronal matter ejection. The telescope also helped "Kuafu One" realize the simultaneous observation of the full-day and recent coronal areas of the Lehman Alpha band for the first time.
These three instruments each have their own "unique martial arts". The full-day surface vector magnetograph is my country's first space solar magnetic field measurement device. Its time resolution is relatively high, and it can realize the continuous observation of the full-day surface photosphere vector magnetic field. Compared with similar international loads, it has higher magnetic field measurement sensitivity and time resolution.
hard X-ray imager is used to detect non-thermal radiation of solar flares, which is more probes than similar international instruments. It has 99 detectors, which can achieve high-resolution imaging, and also has a large dynamic range and high-speed electronic reading technology, ensuring the detection ability of "Kuafu One" to high-level flare outbreaks.
Lyman Alpha solar telescope is my country's first space Lyman Alpha solar telescope. It not only enables seamless observation of the sun from the corona to the inner corona, but also has the ability to automatically monitor solar flare outbreaks, and its observation mode can be automatically converted. At the same time, the Lyman Alpha spectral line itself is also a new observation band window.
, which will serve at least 4 years in a solar synchronous orbit 720 kilometers away from the ground, can be called a "workaholic". For most of the year, it can observe the sun 24 hours a day. From May to August every year alone, there will be a short time to enter the shadow of the earth every day, and the longest day of "rest" does not exceed 18 minutes. It will generate approximately 500 Gigabytes of data per day, which will be opened to the world after processing by ground support systems and scientific application systems, and data sharing.
Therefore, the two sun exploration satellites launched by my country have their own focus and will jointly enhance my country's influence in the field of world solar physics research.
can detect all levels of the solar atmosphere
Since the 1960s, countries around the world have successively launched dozens of solar exploration-related satellites into space.
In this international solar exploration boom of "heroes chasing the sun", my country's research on solar physics has not been absent. Gan Weiqun introduced that my country's research on solar physics has a high international status. In 2010, China's total number of papers published in the field of solar physics ranked second in the world. The "Xihe" launched last year can be called the "pathfinder" of my country's Sun Explorer Project, while the "Kuafu-1" is a versatile observer of the sun. It can observe the sun from ultraviolet, visible light and X-ray bands.
Source: Science and Technology Daily
Process Editor: TF022
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