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Topic: Solar Maximum Mission

	The Solar Maximum Mission
		The Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) was launched on 14 February 1980 to, primarily, study the Sun during the high part of the solar cycle.
		SMM was recovered by the space shuttle Challenger in April 1984 and serviced in orbit.
		Since the SMM views the Earth during the nighttime portion of each orbit, only about 1 event on 40 is detected with a pi/6 sr field of view for which the spectra are not badly contaminated by the shield-processed contributions.
	heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov /docs/heasarc/missions/solarmax.html (526 words)

	Solar Maximum Mission
		SMM was launched on a Thor-Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral on February 14, 1980, and remained in operation for nearly ten years; its life ended when it entered the earth's atmosphere in November 1989.
		Both these instruments were extremely high-resolution X-ray spectrometers designed to observe the soft X-ray line spectrum from solar flares and active regions which occurred in profusion at the start and end of the mission, and were still in evidence during the middle years of the 1980s when there was a minimum in solar activity.
		Data from SMM have proved to be a highly valuable insight into the mechanisms of solar activity -- flares, coronal mass ejections, active regions, plasma flows etc. The scientists who have worked on the data analysis have an international background and have made important advances in solar physics.
	www.sstd.rl.ac.uk /project/smm (1209 words)

	Solar Max
		The Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) was designed to provide coordinated observations of solar activity, in particular solar flares, during a period of maximum solar activity.
		The SMM observatory was of modular construction and measured approximately 4 meters in length, fitting into a circular envelope 2.3 meters in diameter.
		Quick and coordinated responses to solar flares were considered essential for meeting the scientific objectives of the mission.
	www.solarviews.com /eng/solmax.htm (325 words)

	Spacecraft: Solar Maximum Mission
		SMM "was launched on February 14, 1980, near the height of the solar cycle, to enable the solar phsyics community to examine, in more physically meaningful detail than ever before, the most violent aspect of solar activity: flares;" its mission ended in November 1989.
		The SMM spacecraft was constructed using a modular bus, called the Multimission Modular Spacecraft (MMS), which was established in the 1970s, and was also used for the Landsat 4 and 5, TOPEX/Poseidon, UARS, and EUVE missions.
		In April 1984, Shuttle mission 41-C (Challenger) embarked on a mission to rendezvous with SMM, capture it, replace the ACS module, and redeploy the spacecraft.
	www.aoe.vt.edu /~cdhall/Space/archives/000124.html (595 words)

	SMM Quicklook
		The Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) was intended primarily to study solar flares and related phenomena.
		SMM provided measurements of total solar radiative output, transistion region magnetic field strengths, storage and release of flare energy, particle accelerations, the formation of hot plasma, and coronal mass ejection.
		SMM was the first satellite to be retrieved, repaired and redeployed in orbit.
	leonardo.jpl.nasa.gov /msl/QuickLooks/smmQL.html (342 words)

	release 1982 0987
		The climatic effects of short-term variations in solar irradiance are moderated by the heat capacity of the ocean and atmosphere.
		The Solar Maximum Mission was launched Feb. l4, l980, and in December l980, after l0 months of normal operation, the satellite's attitude control system lost its capability to point precisely at the Sun.
		Solar Maximum Mission was the first NASA satellite designed to be retrieved by the Space Shuttle.
	www.jpl.nasa.gov /releases/80s/release_1982_0987.html (966 words)

	NASA/Marshall Solar Physics
		The Solar Maximum Mission (SMM or SolarMax) was launched on February 14, 1980.
		SMM reentered the Earth's atmosphere and burned-up on December 2, 1989.
		SMM carried a battery of instruments designed to study solar flares and the active solar atmosphere.
	solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov /SMM.shtml (504 words)

	Missions to Study the Sun and its Cycle
		The upcoming solar maximum should be the most exciting one ever for scientists studying the Sun, the Earth, and the space in between.
		Two solar maxima ago, Skylab took pictures of the Sun (until atmospheric drag caused by increased solar activity caused it to fall to Earth) and the Solar Maximum Mission was launched.
		It was launched in 1980 to study solar activity during the solar maximum and collected images and data for nine years.
	www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov /istp/outreach/solarmax/missions.html (873 words)

	Solar Maximum Mission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Whilst not unique in this endeavour, the SMM was notable in that its useful life compared with similar spacecraft was significantly increased by the direct intervention of a manned space mission.
		SMM has been fitted with a shuttle "grapple fixture" so that the shuttle's robot arm could grab it in anticipation of possible repairs.
		Significantly, the SMM's ACRIM instrument package showed that, contrary to common sense, the Sun is actually brighter during the sunspot cycle maximum (when the greatest number of dark 'sunspots' appear).
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Solar_Maximum_Mission (250 words)

	NASA/Marshall Solar Physics
		The maximum in this signal occurs at sunspot minimum and is proportional to the sunspot number during the following maximum.
		Another indicator of the level of solar activity is the flux of radio emission from the Sun at a wavelength of 10.7 cm (2.8 GHz frequency).
		It is an important indicator of solar activity because it tends to follow the changes in the solar ultraviolet that influence the Earth's upper atmosphere and ionosphere.
	solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov /predict.shtml (806 words)

	SMM (Solar Maximum Mission)
		Launched during a peak of solar activity, SMM observed more than 12,000 flares and over 1,200 coronal mass ejections during its 10-year lifetime.
		Observations from SMM were coordinated with in situ measurements of flare particle emissions made by ISEE-3 (International Sun-Earth Explorer 3).
		SMM was the first satellite to be retrieved, repaired, and redeployed in orbit: in 1984, the STS-41 Shuttle crew restored the spacecraft’s malfunctioning attitude control system and replaced a failed electronics box.
	www.daviddarling.info /encyclopedia/S/SMM.html (185 words)

	Correlations between coronal and solar wind properties
		X-ray pictures of the Sun from SMM (Solar Maximum Mission), Yohkoh and SOHO show the existence of both large scale (e.g., coronal holes and the equatorial plasma belt) and small scale (e.g., active regions) structure in the corona.
		Fourth, these associations between the coronal and solar wind magnetic field and the solar wind speed are repeatable from solar rotation to solar rotation, albeit with small changes due to localized, small-scale and fast time scale coronal structures and change associated with large scale evolution of the corona itself.
		The overall conclusion here is that fast solar wind streams are associated with coronal holes and open field regions of the corona while slow streams come from the closed field regions primarily concentrated near the equatorial (or streamer) belt.
	www.physics.usyd.edu.au /~cairns/teaching/lecture11/node3.html (800 words)

	Back to the Max: the salvation option - possibility of repairing Solar Maximum Mission satellite Science News - Find ...
		Despite the list of missions awaiting the space shuttle's return to flight, the Solar Maximum Mission satellite, repaired in orbit by shuttle astronauts in 1984, is now being considered for a second service call.
		The primary purpose of "Solar Max" was to monitor the sun throughout an entire 11-year Cycle of solar activity, compiling an unbroken record of its changes.
		Solar Max carries no radioactive materials to worry about, but the solid spacecraft might seem to evoke more reasons than just solar science for keeping it in orbit.
	www.findarticles.com /p/articles/mi_m1200/is_n6_v134/ai_6583036 (806 words)

	Total Solar Irradiance
		ppppp is the parameter, irrad = solar irradiance
		The variation of the total solar irradiance is an important study area both from the point of view of solar physics and because of the possible effect on the Earth's climate.
		Several investigators have used proxy solar signals to estimate what the changes in the total solar irradiance is. This is done both to check the consistency of the total irradiance measurements and more importantly to estimate what the irradiance variations were in the past before accurate irradiance measurements started in November 1978.
	daac.gsfc.nasa.gov /interdisc/readmes/sol_irrad.shtml (4090 words)

	Solar Storms
		The maximum usually coincides with an increase in two other kinds of extremely bad "space weather." In one, powerful solar flares hurl protons and electrons almost to the speed of light.
		When the solar wind hits the Earth's magnetic field, electrons and protons inside the field are accelerated into currents that flow along the gossamer-thin magnetic field lines and converge on the polar regions.
		Since the last solar maximum in 1990, hundreds of millions of people have come to depend on flawless, reliable work by an armada of satellites worth tens of billions of dollars.
	solar.physics.montana.edu /press/WashPost/Horizon/196l-031099-idx.html (2652 words)

	ACRIMSAT: MEASURING THE SUN'S ENERGY
		In May 1984 the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) spacecraft was recovered and repaired in space.
		This is a photograph of the Solar Max spacecraft in flight in space.
		The SSPP points at the sun during the sun-lit portion of the orbit and it points at stars for SOLSTICE spectral measurements during the dark side of the orbit.
	acrim.jpl.nasa.gov /missions/previous_missions.html (110 words)

	Solar radiation and Milankovich
		The value of the solar constant (total amount of radiation incident on the earth in 1 year) is not just an estimate; it is determined for example from observations of the american Solar Maximum Mission in 1987.
		These measurements showed that although the solar constant S is not perfectly constant, the variation is less than 1% of the average value.
		The maximum change in S associated with variation in eccentricity is about 0.1%.
	www.open.ou.nl /dja/Klimaat/System/solar_radiation_and_milank.htm (964 words)

	SolarMax Resources for Educators
		The issue from March 9, 2000, discusses solar activity, the solar cycle, and the upcoming solar maximum.
		This image shows the "butterfly diagram," a figure that tracks the location of sunspots during the solar cycle, resulting in a pattern that resembles a butterfly's wings as the sunspots migrate equatorward on the Sun near solar maximum.
		Yohkoh soft x-ray images taken over nearly a solar cycle show the startling difference in the appearance of the Sun between solar minimum (the dark, inactive Sun on the right) and solar maximum (the bright Sun on the left covered with active regions).
	www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov /istp/outreach/solarmax/teach.html (847 words)

	Chronology of Space Exploration
		Solar probe is in a solar orbit; came within 47 million kilometers of the Sun.
		Its the mission was to study the Martian weather, climate, and water and carbon dioxide budget.
		The mission has as its primary science goals to gather data to help determine whether the environment on Mars was ever conducive to life, to characterize the climate and geology of Mars, and to study potential radiation hazards to possible future astronaut missions.
	www.solarviews.com /eng/craft2.htm (8255 words)

	The Solar-B Brochure (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		The processes by which solar magnetism leaves the Sun to produce a solar cycle are unknown.
		The solar UV and X radiation originates in the chromosphere and corona, where temperatures rise to over one million degrees.
		Solar Wind: The million-degree corona continually expands outward, becoming a supersonic wind that blows past the Earth, buffeting the geomagnetic field and dumping energy into the upper atmosphere.
	science.nasa.gov /ssl/pad/solar/solar-b_brochure.stm (1313 words)

	Aspects of Human Exploration (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Fire behavior and hence preventive and responsive safety actions in the missions are strongly influenced by the low-gravity environments in flight and on the planetary surfaces.
		A computational procedure and data base are developed for manned space exploration missions for which estimates are made for the energetic particle fluences encountered and the resulting dose equivalent incurred.
		This paper presents a statistical comparison of the solar total irradiance measured from the Nimbus-7, the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM), the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS), and the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) spacraft platforms, for the period 1985 - 1992.
	fsi.ucf.edu /special/SolarSystem/mars/HE (1292 words)

	The Heliosphere in Perspective - Key Results from the Ulysses Mission at Solar Minimum
		The breadth of scientific topics addressed by the mission is truly impressive, ranging from detailed measurements of the solar wind and its magnetic field, to the properties of interstellar gas and the isotopic composition of cosmic-ray nuclei.
		One of the main goals of the Ulysses mission was to determine the global structure of the heliosphere, in particular with regard to the distribution of solar-wind plasma, and its 'frozen-in' magnetic field.
		The capability to contrast the observations from solar minimum and solar maximum is crucial to placing the data in perspective.
	esapub.esrin.esa.it /bulletin/bullet92/b92marsd.htm (3810 words)

	Solar Irradiance and Long-Term Climate Variability
		A long-term program of monitoring the solar irradiance from space will provide the answers as far as the sun itself is concerned, but the climatic effects of solar variations are likely to be increasingly difficult to isolate in the future, as anthropogenic forcing becomes stronger.
		The use of other stars to infer solar variability has been questioned by Schatten [1993], however, who has pointed out that the observed irradiance is likely to be a function of the heliographic latitude of the observer, being a minimum near the solar equatorial plane, where the Earth is located.
		Using a simple one-dimensional model of the ocean's thermal structure, he calculated that variations in solar irradiance of several tenths of a percent on the time scale of decades to centuries would be needed to explain the effect, assuming that no other causes of temperature change were in operation.
	www.agu.org /revgeophys/reid00/node2.html (1525 words)

	Solar Flares (CGRO special exhibit)
		Solar flares are explosions of energetic particles and electromagnetic radiation in the outer atmosphere of the sun.
		In this regard, Compton was following in the footsteps of OSO Orbiting Solar Observatory 7 (1971-'74) and the Gamma-Ray Spectrometer on the Solar Maximum Mission (1980-'81, '84-'89), the only other space missions to see gamma-ray emission lines in solar flares.
		COMPTEL detected neutrons from a solar flare on June 15, 1991.
	imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov /docs/features/exhibit/cgro_solarflares.html (395 words)

	Scientists Image The Three-Dimensional Surface Of The Sun
		Faculae are significant because scientists believe that their brightness is responsible for the increased solar irradiance (on the order of 0.1 to 0.15%) that occurs during periods of maximum solar magnetic activity.
		At solar maximum, the Sun is covered by the greatest amount of dark sunspots in its 11-year cycle.
		However it is known that magnetic fields are swept aside as hot gas rises and spreads across the solar surface and confines the field to regions of down-flows.
	www.spacedaily.com /news/solarscience-03m.html (1247 words)

	Sunspots in History
		At the "solar maximum" there are more solar flares, more sunspots, more sun quakes, more of everything that solar physicists love to study.
		During solar maximum the ionosphere is relatively dense 24 hrs a day.
		Thanks to Jansky's insight and the coincidence of the solar minimum a new window on the Universe was opened and radio astronomy was born.
	www.spaceweather.com /java/sunspot.html (904 words)

	2.2 Solar-type stars
		Shortly after the variability of the Sun in the visual continuum (total irradiance) was established during the Solar Maximum Mission (Willson et al.
		The solar variations, which never exceed a few tenths of a percent, are clearly associated with the disk passage of sunspots and result from a blockage of radiant flux (e.g., Fröhlich
		It appears to be analogous to the solar phenomenon and is caused by starspots.
	solarphysics.livingreviews.org /Articles/lrsp-2005-8/articlesu2.html (391 words)

	Kepler Mission > Stellar Variability (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		We have quantified solar variability at the requisite time scales using observations from the Active Cavity Radiometer for Irradiance Monitoring (ACRIM 1) onboard the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) satellite.
		The figure below illustrates the power spectrum of the Sun from the SMM data taken between 1985 and 1989, roughly during solar maximum.
		Ground-based photometric surveys of solar-like stars find that the solar irradiance is a factor of 2 to 3 times more stable than the sample stars of similar spectral type and activity index (Radick et al.
	kepler.nasa.gov /sci/basis/variability.html (894 words)

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