NASA releases ‘first light’ images taken with e2v CCDs onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory

On 21st April 2010, NASA released the first images taken with e2v Charge Coupled Device (CCD) imaging sensors onboard NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The SDO spacecraft has been designed to examine the evolution of solar activity and to refine our understanding of space weather by studying the Sun on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously.

e2v CCD imaging sensors were supplied for the HMI and AIA instruments which were both built by the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL). The four AIA telescopes observe the Sun in multiple wavelengths to study the energetics of the solar atmosphere and it’s interaction with the surface magnetic fields, and the HMI measures both solar surface magnetic fields and the Sun’s surface motion as a probe of the solar interior.

The new images can be viewed by visiting http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/ and videos are available here.

Read BBC coverage on the new SDO images by clicking here.

A full-disk multiwavelength extreme ultraviolet image of the sun taken by SDO on March 30, 2010
Credit: NASA

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