SWAP (instrument)

The "Sun Watcher using Active Pixel System Detector and Image Processing" (SWAP) telescope is a compact EUV imager on board the PROBA2 mission that will observe the Sun in extreme ultraviolet (EUV). SWAP will provide images of the solar corona at a temperature of roughly 1 million degrees. This instrument was built upon the heritage of the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) which monitors the solar corona since 1996.

SWAP will continue the systematic CME (coronal mass ejection) watch program at an improved image cadence (typically 1 image every minute). With this higher cadence, SWAP will monitor events in the low solar corona that might be relevant for space weather. These events include EIT waves (global waves propagating across the solar disc from the CME eruption site), EUV dimming regions (transient coronal holes from where the CME has lifted off) and filament instabilities (a specific type of flickering during the rise of a filament). SWAP will also take advantage of offpointings provided by the agility featured of PROBA2 platform to follows coronal mass ejections.

SWAP was built at the Centre Spatial de Liege and will be operated from the PROBA-2 Science Center at the Royal Observatory of Belgium.

External links

• SWAP data