Sun Observing IRIS Satellite to Launch in May, Crucial for Better Space Weather Forecasts

Space weather, caused by the extremely energetic dynamics of the enormous fusion fire of our Sun, can have big effects on our technological infrastructure -- mostly on satellites orbiting around Earth, but in extreme cases even on the electrical and electronical infrastructure on the planet's surface. To increase our ability to forecast space weather, a much better understanding of how heat and energy move through the deepest levels of the sun's atmosphere is needed -- and NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) satellite is one step in that direction.

The satellite is now ready to launch after it arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California this month, with the launch currently scheduled to take place after May 28.

"IRIS will contribute significantly to our understanding of the interface region between the sun's photosphere and corona," said Joe Davila, IRIS mission scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "This region is crucial for understanding how the corona gets so hot."

IRIS carries a single instrument, a multichannel imaging spectrograph with an ultraviolet (UV) telescope that will help scientists better understand the physical processes in the sun's interface region.

"With the high-resolution images from IRIS, scientists will be able to use advanced computer models to unravel how matter, light and energy move from the sun's 6,000 Kelvin surface to its million Kelvin corona," said Eric Ianson, IRIS mission manager at NASA Goddard. "Scientists will be able to combine data from NASA's IRIS and Solar Dynamics Observatory and the NASA/JAXA Hinode missions to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the sun's atmosphere."

Following final checkouts, the IRIS spacecraft will be placed inside an Orbital Sciences Pegasus rocket. Deployment of the Pegasus from the L-1011 carrier aircraft is targeted for 7:27 p.m. PDT at an altitude of 39,000 feet at a location over the Pacific Ocean about 100 miles northwest of Vandenberg AFB off the central coast of California south of Big Sur.