NASA's solar maximum mission: a look at a new Sun

Technical Report · Mon Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1987

OSTI ID:5872698

Gurman, J B

As part of the ongoing process of trying to understand the physical processes at work in the Sun, the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) spacecraft was launched on February 14, 1980, near the height of the solar cycle, to enable the solar physics community to examine, in more physically meaningful detail than ever before, the most violent aspect of solar activity: flares. The scientific products of SMM are substantial: by 1986, over 400 papers based on SMM observations and their interpretations had appeared in scientific journals. More important than such numerical measures of success is the significance of the science that has come from SMM. The following topics, the Sun as a star, solar flares, and the active solar atmosphere, as well as other findings of SMM investigators are described. The instruments on the SMM are also described.

• Research Organization: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Greenbelt, MD (USA). Goddard Space Flight Center
• OSTI ID: 5872698
• Report Number(s): N-87-30245; NASA-TM-89539; NAS-1.15:89539
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640104* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Solar Phenomena
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ABUNDANCE
ATMOSPHERES
DOCUMENT TYPES
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAIN SEQUENCE STARS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
POLARIMETERS
RADIATION DETECTORS
RADIOMETERS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
REVIEWS
SOLAR ACTIVITY
SOLAR ATMOSPHERE
SOLAR FLARES
SOLAR PROMINENCES
STARS
STARSPOTS
STELLAR ACTIVITY
SUN
SUNSPOTS