TRACE Strategies

In order to meet our scientific objectives, the TRACE instrument package was designed to capture digital images of the solar plasma at temperatures between 6000 and 10⁷ degrees K with one arc second spatial resolution and on the order of one second temporal resolution. These sequences of images will show all regions of the atmosphere nearly simultaneously. Because the same set of optical surfaces form all the different images, all the images are precisely aligned. The Sun-synchronous TRACE orbit was selected to allow nearly continuous observations of the Sun for months, so that the random processes associated with flux emergence have a very high probability of being observed completely. In most operational modes TRACE will stare at a fixed location with respect to the solar limbs and collect image sequences optimized to be diagnostic of particular processes. In addition the TRACE image processor can continuously monitor the data stream and adapt both the experimental program and the instrument pointing. The decisions on solar targets and particular experiments to be run (including whether the TRACE image computer will be allowed to make adaptive changes) will occur daily. The launch time of TRACE coincides with the onset of the new solar cycle, so that there is a high probability of capturing the emergence processes in a solar atmosphere that is relatively uncomplicated. Further, the new solar cycle coincides with the flight of the NASA/ESA Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SoHO). By merging the data collected by TRACE and SoHO, we can greatly extend the value of both data sets. If the TRACE and SoHO missions coincide, the planning of the daily program for TRACE and will be coordinated with that for the SoHO mission.

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"Use of the Coronal photo is granted as a courtesy of SOHO/EIT consortium. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA."