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Hinode
Artist's impression of the Hinode spacecraft (at the time called SOLAR-B) in orbit
General information
Alternative names:	Solar - B
Organization:	JAXA, NASA, PPARC
Launched:	September 22, 2006 at 21:36 GMT
Launched from:	Uchinoura Space Center
Launch vehicle:	M-V rocket
Type of orbit:	sun-synchronous orbit
Wavelength:	optical, X ray, EUV
Instruments
SOT:	Solar Optical Telescope
XRT:	X-ray Telescope
EIS:	Extreme-Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph
Website:	JAXA overview of mission

Hinode (ひので, Sunrise in Japanese), formerly known as Solar-B, is a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Solar mission with United States and United Kingdom collaboration. It is the follow-up to the Yohkoh ("Solar-A") mission and it was launched on the final flight of the M-V rocket from Uchinoura Space Center, Japan on September 22, 2006 at 21:36 GMT (September 23, 06:36 JST). Initial orbit was perigee height 280 km, apogee height 686 km, inclination 98.3 degrees. Then the satellite maneuvered to the quasi-circular sun-synchronous orbit over the day/night terminator, which allows near-continuous observation of the Sun. On October 28, the probe's instruments captured their first images.

Hinode carries three main instruments to study the Sun:

SOT (Solar Optical Telescope)

A 0.5 meter optical telescope with an angular resolution of about 0.2 arcsec over the field of view of about 400 x 400 arcsec. At the focal plane of the telescope there are two instruments: a filter vector magnetograph and a spectro-polarimeter. The SOT feeds both a spectropolarimeter and a pair of filtergraphs that can be used as a vector magnetograph. The SOT's spatial resolution is a factor-of-5 improvement over preceding space-based Solar telescopes (the MDI on SOHO).

XRT (X-ray Telescope)

A Wolter telescope design that uses grazing incidence optics to image the solar corona's hottest components (0.5 to 10 Million K) with an angular resolution of approximately 1 arcsec.

EIS (Extreme-Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph)

A normal incidence extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectrometer that obtains spatially resolved spectra in two wavelength bands: 17.0-21.2 and 24.6-29.2 nm. Spatial resolution is around 2 arcsec, and the field of view is up to 560 x 512 arcsec^2. The emission lines in the EIS wavelength bands are emitted at temperatures ranging from 50,000 K to 20 million K. EIS is used to identify the physical processes involved in heating the solar corona.

• JAXA overview of mission
• Mission overview Quicktime Windows Media, preparation for launch Quicktime Windows Media, launch Quicktime Windows Media, press conference Quicktime Window Media (in Japanese)
• Solar-B Mission Profile by NASA's Solar System Exploration
• Solar-B project page of National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
• Solar-B project page of Mullard Space Science Laboratory
• Solar-B project page of PPARC
• Solar-B project page of NASA MSFC
• HINODE (SOLAR-B) SOT-FPP Education/Public Outreach at Chabot Space and Science Center
• Solar-B brochure
• Amos, Jonathan. "Probe to study mighty explosions", BBC News, 2006-09-09. Retrieved on 2006-09-09.