NASA waited 11 years for the observation, but was forced to stop by a broken water pipe

We have seen many shocking images of the sun, such as this one, "Sun Smile.jpg", which is hard to say whether it is evil or cute, and many dynamic high-definition videos.

Image credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO

Most of these iconic high-definition images come from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Since its launch in 2010, SDO has been staring at the sun, collecting a large amount of valuable data, most of which is stored in the server of the Joint Science Operations Center (JSOC) in Stanford, USA. These data not only allow viewers to see the solar images every day, but also monitor the upcoming solar storm signals.

In early October last year, NASA officially confirmed that the sun has entered its 11-year activity cycle, the solar maximum , which is the most active period for sunspots, flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and other events. This also makes SDO's solar monitoring particularly important. Researchers are eager to try to use different solar probes to monitor and collect data in various dimensions in real time to better understand solar physics. But a broken water pipe interrupted SDO's data service during this critical period.

Image source: JSOC archive

On November 27, 2024, local time, the JSOC team released a log stating that on November 26, a condensation pipe with a diameter of about 10 cm (4 inches) broke in the room where the server was located, causing water to accumulate in the JSOC room to a depth of several inches, seriously damaging many electronic devices in the building , including the server that stores and distributes data from two core instruments of SDO, which is also the server of the Transition Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS). As of the next day, although the water in the room had been drained, various items were still wet, and there were multiple leaks that were still damaging electronic equipment.

After the accident, the JSOC team immediately created an emergency resource page to update available information for users who may need data, but the situation was so serious that all archived data was temporarily inaccessible, and real-time scientific data processing and distribution were temporarily interrupted . Although SDO and IRIS in orbit are still operating normally and collecting data as planned, and the collected data will not be lost, this announcement that looks like "pop, everything is gone!" still makes people feel a little absurd.

Solar Photographer

In the early 21st century, NASA proposed the "Living With a Star " (LWS) program, which aims to understand the impact of the sun on the sun-Earth system and other aspects through a series of solar exploration missions, and to achieve accurate predictions of space weather. The SDO launched in February 2010 is the first mission of the program. Its main scientific goal is to observe the sun from multiple bands, understand solar dynamics, collect data on the solar magnetic field structure, and monitor changes in solar radiation.

Image credit: NASA

All the activities of the Sun, no matter how big or small, will have an impact on the Earth . But we who live on Earth still have many questions about our home planet.

For example, what is the mechanism that drives the Sun's approximately 11-year activity cycle? How does the Sun release its stored magnetic energy into the heliosphere? How does small-scale magnetic reconnection affect large-scale turbulence, and does it lead to the abnormally high temperatures in the solar corona? Which magnetic field configurations lead to activities such as coronal mass ejections and flares? Can the structure and dynamics of the solar wind near the Earth be determined by the magnetic field and atmospheric structure on the Sun's surface? Most importantly, can space weather be reliably predicted by monitoring activity on the Sun's surface?

To explore these questions related to solar dynamics, SDO carries three scientific instruments - the Helioseismological and Magnetogenic Instrument (HMI), the Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE), and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) - which can not only continuously observe solar activity on time scales such as seconds to years, but also observe activities in the solar interior, photosphere and corona from multiple bands.

Image credit: NASA

The AIA can provide continuous observations of the solar chromosphere and corona in seven extreme ultraviolet channels, showing temperature changes from 20,000 Kelvin to 20 million Kelvin. It is also through this instrument that we can see the solar images of every day since May 2010 on the "The Sun Today" website created by the research team.

EVE is more concerned with changes in the solar radiation spectrum . The high-energy extreme ultraviolet photons (EUV) emitted by the sun can heat the Earth's upper atmosphere to form the ionosphere, but EUV radiation is always changing, and this change greatly affects atmospheric heating, satellite drag, satellite communication systems, etc. In addition, HMI can use multiple filters to make precise measurements of the solar magnetic field . These data can help researchers establish the relationship between the internal dynamics of the sun and magnetic activity.

Compared to the SDO, which has many functions, IRIS , launched by NASA in June 2013, is just a small probe that mainly uses a solar telescope and a spectrometer to explore the solar chromosphere , a complex interface between the solar photosphere and the corona. It is a key area for understanding how the sun transfers energy to the solar wind, and is also a "representative" for understanding the stellar atmosphere.

The IRIS spacecraft is assembled in a Lockheed Martin cleanroom. Image credit: NASA, Lockheed Martin

Temporary absence

During the solar maximum, which occurs once every 11 years, SDO should have regularly measured the sun's magnetic field, allowing researchers to more accurately track the geometry of the sun's magnetic field and the evolution of sunspots, which can help predict upcoming solar flares and other activities. In combination with ground-based observatories, it will help researchers determine the direction of coronal mass ejections.

Unfortunately, both the "all-round photographer" SDO and the chromosphere-specific IRIS, although they are still operating as planned and diligently collecting data, have to be temporarily absent for a period of time due to a broken water pipe. Fortunately, the JSOC server accident only affected the data of AIA, HIM and IRIS, and EVE's data was spared.

As of mid-February, the JSOC team had been updating their repair progress on the emergency resource page and also provided backup data resources. The team quickly set up a virtual server to allow users to obtain historical data of AIA and HMI over a period of time. On February 14, they finally resumed regular data processing, with only a small portion of historical data still being restored.

It is hard to imagine that in the frontier of space exploration, the unreliability of the ground machine room almost caused huge losses. However, accidents are always accompanied by progress. Perhaps by the next solar maximum, the cooling equipment will be greatly improved.

References

[1]https://gizmodo.com/busted-water-pipe-halts-nasas-solar-observations-at-the-worst-possible-time-2000533455

[2]https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/sdo#sdo-solar-dynamics-observatory

[3]https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/iris#eop-quick-facts-section

[4]https://suntoday.lmsal.com/suntoday/?suntoday_date=2025-02-27、

[5]https://sdoisgo.blogspot.com/

[6]https://solarweb1.stanford.edu/JSOC_Emergency_Resources.html

Planning and production

Source: Global Science (ID: huanqiukexue)

Author: Bu Zhou

Editor: Wang Mengru

Proofread by Xu Lailinlin