Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) Data Archive

The Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) is a NASA Small Explorer (SMEX) mission to image the solar corona and transition region at high angular and temporal resolution. The TRACE project maintains an Open Data Policy: all data are available from the LMASL data archives to the science community as soon as the spacecraft data have been processed. See: vestige.lmsal.com/TRACE/ TRACE was launched on a Pegasus launch vehicle from Vandenberg Air Force Base in April 1998.

The launch was scheduled to allow joint observations with SOHO during the rising phase of the solar cycle to sunspot maximum. Coordination with SOHO provides an unprecedented opportunity to follow the emergence of magnetic flux from the base of the convection zone deep inside the Sun, through the photosphere, chromosphere and transitional region, to the low-beta outer corona, while observing the effects of this emergence, such as coronal mass ejections, with high spatial and temporal resolution.