Op 2 november 2009, bracht een Russische Rockot raket de PROBA2-satelliet in een baan om de Aarde. De wetenschappelijke missie van PROBA2 wordt geleid door wetenschappers van de Koninklijke Sterrenwacht van België in Brussel. In de vijf jaren sedert de lancering draaide PROBA2 al meer dan 25000 rondjes om de Aarde — meer dan een miljard kilometer —, maakte de satelliet meer dan een miljoen beelden van de Zon, en werden meer dan 6000 zonnevlammen waargenomen.
Een artistieke voorstelling van PROBA2 die de Zon waarneemt. Klik op de afbeelding voor de volledige resolutie. (beeld van ESA/PROBA2)
On Thursday, October 23, 2014, SWAP, an ultraviolet telescope onboard PROBA2, observed three separate passages through the Moon's shadow, meaning it witnessed three partial solar eclipses in a single day!
After eight years in orbit, ESA’s Venus Express has completed routine science observations and is preparing for decomissioning by aerobraking into Venus' atmosphere; Throughout this maneuver the Space Weather Coordination Centre, aided by PROBA2 observations, will be providing regular space-weather reports for Venus!
Frequent users of SWAP data or watchers of SWAP movies may have noticed some unusual behavior in these images and movies in the last few days. We've been improving the spatial calibration of the data and our tests resulted in a few unusual images, but now that everything is finished you'll notice SWAP images look better and are easier to use than ever before.
At around 14:00 on March 5th 2014, SWAP, the EUV imager on PROBA2, observed a wave travelling over the solar North pole. The wave was probably generated during a strong eruption on the Northern backside of the Sun.
On February 25th, early in the morning, the 'returning' active regions AR11967 (now called AR11990), generated an X4.9 flare, the strongest flare in 2014. Both LYRA and SWAP on-board PROBA2 witnessed the event.