SUVI, Solar Ultra Violet Imaging in clean room in B/252 at ATC in Palo Alto. Photo: Lockheed Martin

[Via Satellite 12-18-13] A Lockheed Martin team has completed the Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) instrument that will make crucial solar measurements when it flies on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration‘s (NOAA) next-generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) satellite missions, known as the GOES R series. The team is on track for instrument delivery in January 2014 for integration with the first GOES R spacecraft at Lockheed Martin’s Space Systems facility in Denver, Colo.

NASA‘s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., manages the SUVI instrument as a part of its support to the acquisition and development of the GOES R series of satellites and its instruments. The SUVI will provide the required solar observational capabilities that enable NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo. to monitor solar activity and to issue accurate, real-time alerts when space weather may possibly affect the performance and reliability of space-borne and ground-based technological systems.