TRACE
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Illustration of TRACE
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| Names | Explorer-73, SMEX-4 |
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| Mission type | Heliophysics |
| Operator | NASA / GSFC |
| COSPAR ID | 1998-020A |
| SATCAT № | 25280 |
| Website | trace.lmsal.com |
| Mission duration | Planned: 1 year Final: 12 years, 2 months and 19 days |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Manufacturer | NASA / GSFC Lockheed Martin |
| Launch mass | 250 kg (551 lb) |
| Dimensions | 1.9 × 1.1 m (6.2 × 3.6 ft) |
| Power | 220 W |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | April 2, 1998, 02:43:23 UTC |
| Rocket | Pegasus XL |
| Launch site | Stargazer, Vandenberg AFB |
| Contractor | Orbital Sciences |
| Entered service | April 20, 1998 |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Sun synchronous |
| Semi-major axis | 6,914.2 km (4,296.3 mi) |
| Eccentricity | 0.00267 |
| Perigee | 517.6 km (321.6 mi) |
| Apogee | 554.5 km (344.6 mi) |
| Inclination | 97.5325° |
| Period | 95.3667 min |
| RAAN | 89.297° |
| Argument of perigee | 91.5219° |
| Mean anomaly | 32.1161° |
| Mean motion | 15.1 rev/day |
| Epoch | September 10, 2015, 19:19:29 |
| Revolution number | 95290 |
| Main telescope | |
| Name | TRACE Imaging Telescope |
| Type | Cassegrain |
| Diameter | 30 cm (12 in) |
| Focal length | 8.66 m (28.4 ft) |
| Wavelengths | Ultraviolet and extreme ultraviolet |
| Resolution | 1 arcsec |
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Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) was a NASA heliophysics and solar observatory designed to investigate the connections between fine-scale magnetic fields and the associated plasma structures on the Sun by providing high resolution images and observation of the solar photosphere, the transition region, and the corona. A main focus of the TRACE instrument is the fine structure of coronal loops low in the solar atmosphere. TRACE is the fourth spacecraft in the Small Explorer program, launched on April 2, 1998, and obtained its last science image in 2010.
The satellite was built by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Its telescope was constructed by a consortium led by Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Center. The optics were designed and built to a state-of-the-art surface finish by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO). The telescope has a 30 cm (12 in) aperture and 1024×1024 CCD detector giving an 8.5 arc minute field of view. The telescope is designed to take correlated images in a range of wavelengths from visible light through the Lyman alpha line to far ultraviolet. The different wavelength passbands correspond to plasma emission temperatures from 4,000 to 4,000,000 K. The optics use a special multilayer technique to focus the difficult-to-reflect EUV light; the technique was first used for solar imaging in the late 1980s and 1990s, notably by the MSSTA and NIXT sounding rocket payloads.
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