Development of the Sunrise balloon mission

The dynamo-generated fields that emerge from the interior in the form of rope-like concentrations of magnetic flux play a pivotal role in the production of the Sun's activity and radiative variability. The flux eruption process drives the magnetic evolution of the corona and leads to conditions that are conducive to the onset of coronal mass ejections, expulsions of plasma and fields from the Sun that can disturb the Earth's magnetosphere and upper atmosphere and cause disruptive geomagnetic storms. Magnetic flux concentrations of all size scales in the photosphere can affect the flow of energy in the surface layers of the Sun, causing variability of the solar irradiance. Sunrise is a project whereby a balloon-borne, 1-meter telescope will be used to observe the Sun from an altitude sufficiently high that the distorting effects of the Earth's atmosphere are small. Sunrise will permit researchers to study the structure and dynamics of the magnetic field in the solar atmosphere on small spatial scales for extended time periods.

In FY07, an important milestone in the Sunrise balloon-borne solar telescope project was reached with the completion of the construction of the balloon gondola at NCAR. This design and fabrication effort was a joint undertaking of ESSL's HAO and EOL. The sophisticated gondola will carry a 1 m aperture telescope to stratospheric altitudes where it will be used to acquire the highest spatial resolution solar observations ever obtained. The Sunrise project is an international collaborative effort, consisting of HAO (USA), the Max-Planck-Institut fur Sonnensystemforschung (Germany), the Kiepenheuer-Institut fur Sonnenphysik (Germany), the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (Spain), the Lockheed Martin Solar & Astrophysics Laboratory (USA), the University of Utrecht (The Netherlands), and the University of Chicago (USA).

Recently, the Sunrise gondola, equipped with a 26.2 cm test telescope, was flown out of NASA's High Altitude Balloon Facility at Fort Sumner, New Mexico for a 10 hour test flight. The flight was successful, with data on the performance of the pointing system of the gondola taken as well series of pictures of the Sun. The landing was smooth, with little resulting damage to the equipment. Preliminary data analysis has led to the decision to go ahead with the preparation of a multi-day science flight in 2009 out of Kiruna, Sweden.

Press Releases:

Balloon test flight hailed -> Denver Post
NCAR Finds Success With Solar Telescope -> CBS 4
A really big balloon to see the sun like never before -> 9 News
Solar Telescope Soars Into Sky On Jumbo-jet-sized Balloon -> Science Daily.com
Giant balloon, telescope rise 120,000 feet -> UPI.com
Floating Telescope Observes the Sun -> Space.com