China's solar observation satellite data open for trial use

A Long March-2D carrier rocket carrying the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S) blasts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, Oct. 9, 2022. (Photo by Wang Jiangbo/Xinhua)

BEIJING, April 12 (Xinhua) -- The satellite observation data of the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S) was open for trial use at home and abroad, authorities said on Wednesday.

A data release and training conference on how to use the observation data was held online, which was attended by nearly 400 solar physics experts from 25 countries.

ASO-S, China's first comprehensive solar exploration satellite, was launched in October last year from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.

After half a year of in-orbit commissioning, the satellite has obtained about 80 TB of raw solar observation data.

Speaking at the conference, Gan Weiqun, the satellite's chief scientist, provided a comprehensive overview of the scope of the trial opening data, including all observations from the Hard X-ray Imager (HXI) since April 1, some observations from the Full-disk Vector MagnetoGraph (FMG), and some observations from the Lyman-alpha Solar Telescope (LST).

"In the future, we will make adjustments based on the satellite's in-orbit testing, eventually making all of the satellite's observations available to the public in quasi-real time," Gan said.

The two-day conference, which began on Tuesday, was co-hosted by the Purple Mountain Observatory under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the National Space Science Center under the CAS, and the National Space Science Data Center.