Thursday, March 18, 2010

Ka-band Up and Running

Wednesday was a very good day for the SDO observatory and team. The Ka-band transmitter was turned on, the antennas pointed at the ground station, and data started to flow. Both ground antennas locked immediately and had good signal strength. HMI and AIA generated test pattern data, which was transmitted to the ground and forwarded to the JSOC without any errors.

The SDO team is now working with the antennas to make sure they track the Earth with one rotation per orbit. This allows us to send 150 Mbps to the ground. So far the Ka-band system is looking great! GO SDO!!