Eight Years for ODIN: Another 3 and we get a full solar cycle

[venator_3000]

<p>&nbsp;</p><p><font size="2"><font face="Arial" color="#000000">On Friday, Feb 20th the Swedish atmospheric research and astronomy satellite Odin celebrated 8 years in orbit.&nbsp;This is interesting because since its primary astronomy mission has ended it has focussed on Earth's atmosphere and changes during a solar cycle. Another 3 years and it will have collected data&nbsp;for a full cycle.<br /><br />Recently, new insights into couplings between noctilucent clouds in the northern hemisphere and the ozone hole in the southern,&nbsp;and into water vapour abundance and transport processes in the upper atmosphere, have been offered. Before Odin there was no water vapour data from 80 km altitude and above,&nbsp;and no polar coverage&nbsp;in the upper atmosphere. </font></font></p><p><font size="2"><font face="Arial" color="#000000"><br />Originally a dual discipline satellite, Odin astronomy observations have&nbsp;essentially been ended.&nbsp;It was sort of a pre-cursor for Herscel. Among many interesting achievements: the&nbsp;detection of molecular oxygen in the outer space of our galaxy was a scientific first. </font></font></p><p><font size="2"><font face="Arial" color="#000000">The low abundance of the molecule in star forming regions has led to major&nbsp;rethinking regarding chemical models and&nbsp;the large variations in water vapour also observed by Odin. This is also of importance for the oxygen and water observations to be made with the new, large ESA mission Herschel, to be launched in April,&nbsp;where&nbsp;Odin astronomers&nbsp;are now focussing their efforts.&nbsp;</font></font></p><p><font size="2"><font face="Arial" color="#000000">Odin&nbsp;is still in excellent shape and there&nbsp;is presently no known complications that would prevent observations by Odin over the next few years. Atmospheric scientists dream about measuring during an entire solar cycle, about 11 years. Hopefully it will be able to continue past the decade mark.</font></font></p><p><font face="Arial" size="2">V3K</font></p><p><br /><img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/14/7/5e99d168-6002-4d1c-a73f-1e14b0c9d55b.Medium.jpg" alt="" /><br />(Odin in processing (2000)</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>