The High-Resolution Coronal Imager, or Hi-C, launches aboard a Black Brant IX sounding rocket on April 17 at Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks, Alaska. Credit: NASA / Lee Wingfield NASA ’s Hi-C Flare mission, employing innovative technology and a new algorithm for predicting solar flare behavior, successfully launched a rocket to capture detailed solar images. This mission marks a significant advancement in the study of solar phenomena, involving multiple instruments and collaboration across several research institutions.
After months of preparation and years since its last flight, the upgraded High Resolution Coronal Imager Flare mission – Hi-C Flare, for short – took to the skies for a never-before-seen view of a solar flare. The low-noise cameras – built at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama – are part of a suite of state-of-the-art instruments on board the Black Brant IX sounding rocket that launched April 17 from Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska. Using the new technology, investigators hoped to study the extreme energies involved with solar flares.
The Hi-C Flare experiment mission was led by Marshall. Launch and Technology Testing “This is a pioneering campaign,” said Sabrina Savage, principal investigator at Marshall for Hi-C Flare. “Launching sounding rockets to observe the Sun to test new technologies optimized for flare observations has not even been an option until now.
” It was the third iteration of the Hi-C inst.
