Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI): New satellite sensor will analyze and predict severe space weather

Lockheed Martin engineers in Denver install the Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) on the GOES-R Sun Pointing Platform. 

SUVI was built at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif.

Credit: Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin has delivered a new solar analysis payload that will help scientists measure and forecast space weather, which can damage satellites, electrical grids and communications systems on Earth.

The Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) instrument was integrated with the first flight vehicle of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) next-generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, known as GOES-R.

The GOES-R Series spacecraft are designed and built by Lockheed Martin in Denver, Colo.

"It is enormously satisfying to see the first GOES-R satellite and its instruments coming together, and it is great to see SUVI in flight configuration on the satellite's Sun-Pointing Platform," said Jeff Vanden Beukel, Lockheed Martin SUVI program director at the Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, where the instrument was built.

"We look forward to continuing our collaboration with NASA and NOAA to produce state-of-the-art scientific instruments that increase safety and improve quality of life."

SUVI will provide the required solar observational capabilities that enable NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo.,;

• to monitor solar activity and to issue accurate, real-time alerts; when space weather could affect the performance and reliability of technological systems in space and on the ground, 
• through the enhanced detection of coronal holes, solar flares and coronal mass ejections, 
• as well as improved geomagnetic storm and power blackout forecasts.

Extreme Space weather is known to disrupt satellite operations, communications, navigation, and the distribution of electricity through power grids.

Timely forecasts of severe space weather events would help satellite operators and electrical grid technicians mitigate potential damage to such systems.

Lockheed Martin is under contract to build the first four next-generation GOES satellites (R, S, T, and U).

Four of the six instruments for the GOES-R satellite have been delivered to the Denver facility and are being integrated with the spacecraft.

Once the instrument complement is completely integrated, a full suite of environmental tests will be conducted. Launch of the GOES-R satellite is scheduled for the first quarter of 2016.

NASA Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI): Space Weather instrument cleared for installation onto GOES-R spacecraft

The first NASA Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) flight unit for the GOES-R series of satellites is being inspected by Lockheed Martin engineer Glenn S. Gradwohl, the SUVI Mechanical Lead, at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif. 

Credit: Lockheed Martin

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite – R known as GOES-R Series Program completed its next instrument, SUVI, Solar Ultra-Violet Imager, which is now ready for integration onto the GOES-R spacecraft.

SUVI is a telescope that will observe the sun in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength range and provide full-disk solar images around the clock.

The instrument will identify active regions on the sun, including solar flares and eruptions, which could lead to coronal mass ejections.

These eruptions affect space weather and can have impacts on Earth including the disruption of power utilities, communication and navigation systems, and can damage orbiting satellites and the International Space Station.

SUVI replaces the current GOES Solar X-ray Imager (SXI) instrument and represents an improvement in the coverage and resolution over the SXI.

SUVI will improve space weather forecasting to enable NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center to provide earlier warnings to electric power companies, telecommunication providers and satellite operators to mitigate possible impacts.

"This milestone marks the completion of the third space weather instrument to fly on board the GOES-R satellite," said Greg Mandt, GOES-R System Program Director at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

"SUVI joins the Space Environment In-Situ Suite or SEISS and Extreme X-Ray Irradiance Sensor or EXIS instruments in preparation for spacecraft integration."

"The remaining space weather instrument, the Magnetometer, will be complete in the coming months."

SUVI will be shipped from the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif. to its sister Lockheed Martin facility in Littleton, Colo., in early 2014 to be installed onto the first GOES-R spacecraft. Lockheed Martin is building the spacecraft for the GOES-R series.

To date, the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), Extreme X-Ray Irradiance Sensor (EXIS) and Space Environment In-Situ Suite, (SEISS) are complete and poised to be integrated onto the spacecraft.

The remaining GOES-R instruments to be delivered are:

• Geostationary Lightning Mapper, which will, for the first time, provide continuous surveillance of total lightning activity from geostationary orbit over the Western Hemisphere;
• Magnetometer, which will provide measurements of the magnetic field surrounding Earth that protects the planet from charged particles released from the sun. 
• These particles can be dangerous to spacecraft and human spaceflight. 
• The geomagnetic field measurements will provide alerts and warnings to satellite operators and power utilities.

GOES-R's instruments will feature improved terrestrial and solar weather monitoring tools and will provide near real-time data to forecasters during severe weather events.

The first satellite in the GOES-R series is currently scheduled for launch in early 2016.