The SPectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment or SPICE instrument is an imaging spectrometer on board the Solar Orbiter mission.
It is a European-led instrument with different partners across Europe and the USA participating in the SPICE consortium.
What is SPICE?
Tracing structures in the heliosphere, the magnetic bubble in which the solar system exists, all the way to their solar origin is the number one objective of the Solar Orbiter mission. SPICE is essential for this objective. This remote-sensing instrument will investigate the extreme ultraviolet light from the Sun, deciphering the activity taking place in the different layers of our star's atmosphere.
In particular, it will provide a complete temperature coverage from the low chromosphere to the flaring corona as its passbands are dominated by emission lines from several different ionized atoms (e.g. H, C, O, N, Si, Fe, …). It will also enable diagnostics of the solar atmosphere plasma composition, and will link the solar wind stream composition detected in-situ with other instruments aboard the spacecraft.
SPICE is now on social media! Twitter: @spice_on_SolO and Instagram: @solarorbiter_spice. Follow us!
Latest news
- November 2024: New SPICE data release (5.0)
- 11-12 June 2024: SPICE consortium meeting in Göttingen, Germany
- 12 December 2023: New SPICE data release (4.0)
- 19-20 April 2023: SPICE consortium meeting in Paris (Jussieu)
- 12-16 September 2022: SPICE is being presented at the Solar Orbiter workshop
- 10 September 2022: New SPICE data release
- 21-22 June 2022: SPICE consortium meeting in Oslo, Norway
- March-April 2022: First 3 remote-sensing windows of the nominal mission
