ANCHORAGE – Scientists analyzing data from NASA’s CODEX (Coronal Diagnostic Experiment) investigation have successfully evaluated the instrument’s first images, revealing the speed and temperature of material flowing out from the Sun. These images,shared at a press event Tuesday at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Anchorage,Alaska,illustrate the Sun’s outer atmosphere,or corona,is not a homogenous,steady flow of material,but an area with sputtering gusts of hot plasma. these images will help scientists improve thier understanding of how the Sun impacts Earth and our technology in space.

The groundbreaking images from the CODEX investigation, unveiled at the American Astronomical Society meeting, showcase the dynamic nature of the Sun’s corona. Rather of a uniform outflow, the corona exhibits turbulent bursts of hot plasma. These observations promise to refine our knowledge of the Sun’s influence on Earth and space-based technologies.

“We really never had the ability to do this kind of science before,” said Jeffrey Newmark, a heliophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the principal investigator for CODEX. “The right kind of filters, the right size instrumentation — all the right things fell into place. These are brand new observations that have never been seen before, and we think there’s a lot of really interesting science to be done with it.”

NASA’s CODEX is a solar coronagraph, an instrument often employed to study the Sun’s faint corona, or outer atmosphere, by blocking the shining face of the Sun. The instrument, which is installed on the International Space Station, creates artificial eclipses using a series of circular pieces of material called occulting disks at the end of a long telescope-like tube. The occulting disks are about the size of a tennis ball and are held in place by three metal arms.

Coronagraphs are vital tools for observing the corona’s visible light, exposing dynamic phenomena like solar storms that influence space weather and can affect Earth.

“The CODEX instrument is doing something new,” said Newmark. “Previous coronagraph experiments have measured the density of material in the corona, but CODEX is measuring the temperature and speed of material in the slowly varying solar wind flowing out from the Sun.”

These novel measurements enable scientists to more accurately define the energy characteristics at the solar wind’s origin.

The CODEX instrument uses four narrow-band filters — two for temperature and two for speed — to capture solar wind data. “By comparing the brightness of the images in each of these filters, we can tell the temperature and speed of the coronal solar wind,” said Newmark.

A deeper understanding of the solar wind’s speed and temperature is crucial for developing a more precise model of the Sun and predicting its behavior.

“the CODEX instrument will impact space weather modeling by providing constraints for modelers to use in the future,” said Newmark. “We’re excited for what’s to come.”

“We really never had the ability to do this kind of science before… These are brand new observations that have never been seen before!”

Understanding the Coronal Diagnostic Experiment (CODEX)

The Coronal Diagnostic Experiment (CODEX) is providing scientists with unprecedented data about the Sun’s corona and solar wind. By measuring the temperature and speed of the solar wind, CODEX is helping to refine models of space weather and the Sun’s impact on Earth.