SunCET Satellite - Nanosats Database

Spacecraft	SunCET (Sun Coronal Ejection Tracker)
Spacecraft type	CubeSat
Units or mass	6U
Status	not launched, expected in 2025
Launcher	not launched
Entity name	University of Colorado Boulder
Institution	University
Entity	Academic / Education
Nation	US
Oneliner	Examine the dominant physical mechanisms that accelerate coronal mass ejections (CME)
Description	The Sun Coronal Ejection Tracker (SunCET) mission will examine the dominant physical mechanisms that accelerate coronal mass ejections (CME), huge clouds of solar plasma and magnetic fields that escape the Sun after some solar eruptions. These physical mechanisms operate largely in the Sun’s middle corona, a region that has historically been under-observed. SunCET will have a novel simultaneous, high-dynamic range detector that can resolve the low and middle corona from the surface of the Sun out to 4 solar radii. This is critical for tracking the emergence of CMEs, which are a key driver of severe space weather. One of the greatest limitations of our current CME-forecasting capability is our lack of physical understanding of how CMEs are accelerated. Measurements from SunCET will help improve space weather forecasting to protect our technology and assets in space.
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Last modified: 2023-06-09