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The SWAP EUV Imaging Telescope Part I: Instrument Overview and Pre-Flight Testing
Berghmans, D.; Auchère, F.; Seaton, D. B. +17 more
The Sun Watcher with Active Pixels and Image Processing (SWAP) is an EUV solar telescope onboard ESA's Project for Onboard Autonomy 2 (PROBA2) mission launched on 2 November 2009. SWAP has a spectral bandpass centered on 17.4 nm and provides images of the low solar corona over a 54×54 arcmin field-of-view with 3.2 arcsec pixels and an imaging cade…
On-Orbit Degradation of Solar Instruments
Schmutz, W.; Berghmans, D.; Auchère, F. +38 more
We present the lessons learned about the degradation observed in several space solar missions, based on contributions at the Workshop about On-Orbit Degradation of Solar and Space Weather Instruments that took place at the Solar Terrestrial Centre of Excellence (Royal Observatory of Belgium) in Brussels on 3 May 2012. The aim of this workshop was …
The SWAP EUV Imaging Telescope. Part II: In-flight Performance and Calibration
Mierla, M.; Berghmans, D.; Seaton, D. B. +6 more
The Sun Watcher with Active Pixel System detector and Image Processing (SWAP) telescope was launched on 2 November 2009 onboard the ESA PROBA2 technological mission and has acquired images of the solar corona every one to two minutes for more than two years. The most important technological developments included in SWAP are a radiation-resistant C…
The LYRA Instrument Onboard PROBA2: Description and In-Flight Performance
Schmutz, W.; Shapiro, A. I.; Zhukov, A. N. +7 more
The Large Yield Radiometer (LYRA) is an XUV-EUV-MUV (soft X-ray to mid-ultraviolet) solar radiometer onboard the European Space Agency Project for On-Board Autonomy 2 (PROBA2) mission, which was launched in November 2009. LYRA acquires solar-irradiance measurements at a high cadence (nominally 20 Hz) in four broad spectral channels, from soft X-ra…
PROBA2: Mission and Spacecraft Overview
Zender, J.; Schwehm, G.; de Groof, A. +9 more
Within the European Space Agency's (ESA) General Support and Technology Programme (GSTP), the Project for On-Board Autonomy (PROBA) missions provide a platform for in-orbit technology demonstration. Besides the technology demonstration goal, the satellites allow to provide services to, e.g., scientific communities. PROBA1 has been providing multi-…
Solar TErrestrial Relations Observatory-A (STEREO-A) and PRoject for On-Board Autonomy 2 (PROBA2) Quadrature Observations of Reflections of Three EUV Waves from a Coronal Hole
Berghmans, D.; Seaton, D. B.; Temmer, M. +5 more
We investigate the interaction of three consecutive large-scale coronal waves with a polar coronal hole, simultaneously observed on-disk by the Solar TErrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO)-A spacecraft and on the limb by the PRoject for On-Board Autonomy 2 (PROBA2) spacecraft on 27 January 2011. All three extreme ultraviolet (EUV) waves origin…
Measuring the Magnetic-Field Strength of the Quiet Solar Corona Using "EIT Waves"
Long, D. M.; Régnier, S.; Harra, L. K. +1 more
Variations in the propagation of globally propagating disturbances (commonly called "EIT waves") through the low solar corona offer a unique opportunity to probe the plasma parameters of the solar atmosphere. Here, high-cadence observations of two "EIT wave" events taken using the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument onboard the Solar Dyn…
Dynamics of Coronal Bright Points as Seen by Sun Watcher Using Active Pixel System Detector and Image Processing (SWAP), Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), and Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI)
Banerjee, D.; Krishna Prasad, S.; Ravindra, B. +2 more
The Sun Watcher using Active Pixel system detector and Image Processing (SWAP) onboard the PRoject for OnBoard Autonomy-2 (PROBA2) spacecraft provides images of the solar corona in EUV channel centered at 174 Å. These data, together with the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) and the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) onboard Solar Dynamics Ob…
Signatures of Slow Solar Wind Streams from Active Regions in the Inner Corona
Berghmans, D.; Slemzin, V.; Harra, L. +3 more
The identification of solar-wind sources is an important question in solar physics. The existing solar-wind models (e.g., the Wang-Sheeley-Arge model) provide the approximate locations of the solar wind sources based on magnetic field extrapolations. It has been suggested recently that plasma outflows observed at the edges of active regions may be…
Study of a Prominence Eruption using PROBA2/SWAP and STEREO/EUVI Data
Mierla, M.; Zhukov, A. N.; Berghmans, D. +6 more
Observations of the early rise and propagation phases of solar eruptive prominences can provide clues about the forces acting on them through the behavior of their acceleration with height. We have analyzed such an event, observed on 13 April 2010 by SWAP on PROBA2 and EUVI on STEREO. A feature at the top of the erupting prominence was identified …