| Mission type | Balloon-borne telescope | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) | ||||||||
| Website | Official Page | ||||||||
| Mission duration | 6 days (2009), 5 days (2013) | ||||||||
| Spacecraft properties | |||||||||
| Manufacturer | Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics High Altitude Observatory Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía Grupo de Astronomía y Ciencias del Espacio | ||||||||
| Launch mass | 2 t (2.0 long tons; 2.2 short tons) | ||||||||
| Power | 1.5 kW | ||||||||
| Start of mission | |||||||||
| Launch date | 8 June 2009 and 12 June 2013 | ||||||||
| Rocket | Balloon | ||||||||
| Launch site | Esrange Space Center Kiruna, Sweden | ||||||||
| End of mission | |||||||||
| Landing date | 14 June 2009 and 17 June 2013[1][2] | ||||||||
| Landing site | Nunavut, Canada | ||||||||
| Main | |||||||||
| Wavelengths | SuFI: 225, 280, 300, 313, 388 nm IMaX: 525.06 nm SUPOS: 854, 853.8 nm | ||||||||
| Resolution | 0.13-0.15 arcsec | ||||||||
| |||||||||
The Sunrise balloon-borne solar observatory consists of a 1m aperture Gregory telescope, a UV filter imager, an imaging vector polarimeter, an image stabilization system and further infrastructure. The first science flight of Sunrise yielded high-quality data that reveal the structure, dynamics and evolution of solar convection, oscillations and magnetic fields at a resolution of around 100 km in the quiet Sun.[3]
The strong absorption of UV radiation by the Earth's atmosphere makes it challenging to carry out ground-based observations at these wavelengths. A balloon mission reaching altitudes of above 30 km benefits from a reduction of UV absorption by 99%, making engineering solutions for the telescope easier. The launch site was in the arctic region to make uninterrupted observation of the Sun over several days possible. The telescope has a 1 metre primary mirror that directs the 1 kW of solar radiation to the first focal point where 99% of the radiation is reflected out of the telescope, the remaining light is transferred into several instruments.[4]
The one metre diameter primary mirror is made from a glass ceramic zerodur,[5] it is the central part of the gondola of nearly 2 tons. Solar panels of 1.5 kW output power are used to power the onboard equipment and a hard disk array of 2 x 2.4 Terabyte is used to store the data during flight.[4][6]
The giant telescope SUNRISE was launched from Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden. At 08.05 (local time) this morning, the largest balloon born telescope ever took off from Swedish Space Corporation's (SSC) launch facility at Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden.
SUNRISE was successfully launched from Esrange Space Center on June 12, 2013 at 05.38 UTC.
