The Yohkoh Mission

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The Yohkoh Mission is a Japanese Solar mission with US and UK collaborators. It was launched into Earth orbit in August of 1991 and continues to provide valuable data about the Sun's corona and solar flares. The satellite carries four instruments - a Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT), a Hard X-ray Telescope (HXT), a Bragg Crystal Spectrometer (BCS), and a Wide Band Spectrometer (WBS).

MSFC Solar Physics Group members Ron Moore, Jason Porter, David Falconer, and Alphonse Sterling are involved in analyzing some of these images to determine the nature of the magnetic connections in the solar atmosphere and characteristics of flare-like activity.

Yohkoh recently (December 2001) suffered a spacecraft failure that has put this mission on hold. During the solar eclipse of December 14th the spacecraft lost pointing and the batteries discharged. The spacecraft operators have been unable to command the satelite to point toward the sun. The situation may be remedied when the satellite eventually points toward the sun on its own during the seasonal cycle.

Web Links

Yohkoh SXT - The Yohkoh Soft X-ray Telescope Homepage at Lockheed/Martin

YPOP Homepage -- The Yohkoh Public Outreach Project Homepage at Lockheed/Martin