RUSSIAN JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES VOL. 9, ES3004, doi:10.2205/2007ES000276, 2007

1. Introduction

[2]  During 50 years of the space era, the Russian space science passed in studies of solar activity and its influence on the Earth a way from the first artificial satellite to the CORONAS-F satellite, a multifunctional solar space laboratory. The space researches were the very activity that provided the most important input in the knowledge and ideas on solar activity and solar-terrestrial relations what we currently have. Currently it is impossible to consider the very concept of geophysics without a relation to heliophysics, the science studying the Sun and heliosphere filled by the solar wind. The fact that 2007 was claimed as Heliophysical Year once more emphasizes not only the importance of researches in this region for the Humanity, but the broadening of the frames and deepening of our knowledge from geophysics to heliophysics during the passed years of studies. Actually, a lot of new information was obtained concerning space, Sun, and its impact on the Earth and various spheres of human activity both, on the Earth and in space. The state of our knowledge reached the level when we are able to predict with a significant probability solar activity and its influence on the Earth and characterize all this by the term space weather which more and more enters our everyday life.

[3]  The CORONAS-F is the second satellite of the CORONAS Program (Complex Orbital Near-Earth Observations) which has been developed by the Physical Science Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences and is realized in the frame of the Federal Space Program. During the period of observations from July 2001 to December 2005, broad-scale durable continuous observations of solar activity and registration of its manifestations in the near-Earth environment were performed. The scientific payload of the satellite including 15 scientific devices registered electromagnetic and corpuscular radiation of the Sun within a wide spectral range (from optical to gamma emission) and within the energy range from a few keV to hundreds of MeV. The initial altitude and the inclination of the satellite orbit were approximately 500 km and 86o, respectively. The observational period fell on the phases of the maximum and decay of the 23rd cycle of solar activity, when a whole series of extreme events (powerful flares and ejections what provided obtaining the most detailed information on these events and study their manifestations in the near-Earth environment: in the dynamics of the Earth's radiation belts and structural rebuilding of the magnetosphere) occurred on the Sun.


RJES

Citation: Kuznetsov, V. D. (2007), From the geophysical to heliophysical year: The results of the CORONAS-F project, Russ. J. Earth Sci., 9, ES3004, doi:10.2205/2007ES000276.

Copyright 2007 by the Russian Journal of Earth Sciences

Powered by TeXWeb (Win32, v.2.0).