Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory

The Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL) is part of the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center (ATC) that is known primarily for its scientific work in the field of solar physics, astronomy and space weather. Located in Palo Alto, California, LMSAL is involved in many ground- and space-based missions that study the Sun, and conducts basic research into understanding and predicting space weather and the behavior of our Sun including its impacts on Earth and climate.

LMSAL has a 48-year-long heritage of spaceborne solar instruments including: • The Michelson Doppler Imager on the ESA/NASA SOHO • The solar telescope on NASA’s Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) TRACE • The Soft X-ray Telescope on the Japanese Yohkoh satellite • The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager instruments on NASA’s twin STEREO spacecraft • The Solar X-ray Imagers SXI on GOES-N, -O and –P spacecraft • The Focal Plane Package on the Japanese Hinode (Solar-B) satellite • The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly and the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory • Two of the instruments for the next generation GOES-R satellites – the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) and the Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) – are currently under construction • LMSAL and the ATC are currently building both the spacecraft and the science instrument for NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), a Small Explorer Mission scheduled for launch in late 2012.

The LMSAL team is part of Lockheed Martin Space Systems and has close affiliations with NASA and the solar physics group at Stanford University.