Ablaze With Information
It’s Massive! The Sun is the center of the solar system by making up 99.8% of the mass of the entire solar system. Press play and see how the other planets revolve around it in the visualisation below.
Being the inquisitive humans that we are, we have sent out many probes to explore these planets - even as far as the furthest reaches of the solar system. How will we know the workings of the universe, and our place in it, if not this? And here is a summary of all those missions!
Now that the Sun’s powers are known, humans have started to harness it in the form of solar power. Is it not magical - so much free energy from the Sun, converted into so much thermal or electrical energy to power our world! Solar energy is the cleanest and most abundant renewable energy, and the countries shown in the data visualisation below are definitely aware of this little fact!
Is your interest in solar power peaked after all those beautiful visualisations? If not, here’s a fun fact. Researchers have suggested that the amount of sunlight that strikes the Earth's surface in an hour and a half is enough to handle the entire world's energy consumption for a full year! If that does not amaze you even for a fraction of second, we don’t know what will!
Time for another tidbit - the up-to-date Solar Radiation Map of the entire world’s Sun radiation!
Can you see your home from up here?
Solar Radiation Map
Knowing that, you can have a better understanding of these two - water cycles and sea temperatures! And these are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Sun’s importance on Earth’s ecosystem. Driving weather, ocean currents, seasons, climates, and plant life through photosynthesis, life on Earth simple would not exist without the Sun's heat and light.
Water Cycle: Heating the Ocean
Sea Surface Temperature
Back to the Sun and the manmade spacecrafts hovering around it. Not many people understand the value of the data that these missions provide. Even few understand the manners in which they impact the way humans live, work, and play.
This is why the remainder of this page is dedicated to listing the types of data collected by solar satellites, the methods of collection, and the methods of usage to produce insights and highlight their importance for life on Earth.
Read through the rest of this page to be one of the few who truly understand this importance, and call yourself a Sun enthusiast if you manage to understand till the end!
A Popular Solar Satellite
Solar Orbiter
Data : Uses remote sensing to take its first image of the Sun’s poles as solar polar regions to better understand its magnetic cycle, surface, magnetic and electric fields, solar wind plasma, and its polar regions of course! Together with the Parker Solar Probe, they detect transients of flares, coronal mass ejections, and shock waves.
Importance : Identify and predict solar wind that can disrupt radio, GPS communications, and in extreme cases lead to power outages.
Breakdown Of Solar Orbiter Instruments
Common In-suite Instruments
#1 Energetic Particle Detector (EPD)
Data : Measurement of energetic particles from the Sun over a wide range of energies with high temporal, energetic and mass resolutions.
Importance : With minimised side-effects from traveling through space, the data can accurately pinpoint the manner in which solar eruptions generate energetic particle radiation which can affect astronauts and technology in space.
#2 Magnetometer (MAG)
Data : Magnetic field and solar wind plasma.
Importance : Exploring the origins of the magnetic field and solar wind plasma in the corona, and the manner in which energetic particle radiation travels out into the solar system following solar eruptions.
Common Remote-sensing Instruments
#1 Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI)
Data : Track plasma at very high temperatures, and capture images of the layers of the solar atmosphere just above the Sun’s surface — the chromosphere and transition region — and through the corona.
Importance : Links surface observations to those of the blazing corona to track the heating that occurs throughout the lower solar atmosphere. When tracked at the lower atmosphere, the structures and heating processes that influence the corona can be tracked as well.
#2 Metis or Coronagraph
Data : Capture images of the Sun's dim outer atmosphere, the corona, by blocking light from the Sun's bright surface.
Importance : Capturing both visible light as well as an extreme ultraviolet wavelength emitted by hydrogen allows solar wind’s speed to be calculated.
#3 Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI)
Data : The Sun’s magnetic field.
Importance : As a key to understanding the Sun’s behavior, it is the root of all solar activity by driving the solar cycle, the constantly streaming solar wind, and occasional eruptions.
#4 Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager (SoloHi)
Data : Capture images of the interplanetary medium — the solar wind, dust and cosmic rays that fill the space between the Sun and the planets.
Importance : As the material that solar eruptions like CMEs travel through, it can predict the manner in which solar eruptive events travel through space and their impact on Earth.
#5 X-ray Spectrometer/Telescope (STIX)
Data : Flares.
Importance : As they accelerate particles to speeds approaching that of light, tracking their origin and predicting the timing when they will wreak havoc with Earth’s technology, satellites in space, and astronauts is crucial.