The satellite, known as the Advanced Space Solar Observatory (ASO-S), launched on a Long rocket
The ASO-S spacecraft, namedKuafu-1, named after the giant from Chinese mythology who chased the sun, was successfully launched into its target orbit, a sun-synchronous trajectory at an altitude of about 720 km above the Earth.
According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the ASO-S missionwas first proposed by the Chinese community of heliophysics in 2011. The 888kg probe will use three instruments to study the Sun's magnetic field, solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), huge bursts of superheated plasma that shoot out from the Sun at millions of kilometers per hour.
Solar flares are often associated with CMEs, and both arecan affect people on Earth. For example, powerful CMEs can cause geomagnetic storms that can disrupt power grids, radio communications, and GPS navigation. As a "side" effect, CMEs can also enhance auroras.
The purpose of ASO-S is to conduct simultaneousobservations of flares and CMEs “to understand their relationships and mechanisms of formation,” CAS representatives wrote in the mission description. The spacecraft will also study how energy is transported through different layers of the solar atmosphere and how the solar magnetic field affects the evolution of flares and CMEs.
ASO-S is designed to operate for at leastfour years and will generate about 500 gigabytes of data daily. This information can be of significant practical use; the mission description also states that the satellite will conduct "observations of solar eruptions and magnetic field evolution to facilitate space weather forecasting and protect valuable assets in space."
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