Journal of Earth Science & Climatic Change
Open Access

Abstract

Global environmental concerns and the escalating demand for energy, coupled with steady progress in renewable energy technologies are opening up new opportunities for utilization of renewable energy resources. Solar energy is the most abundant, inexhaustible and clean of all the renewable energy resources till date. The target of this paper review the ground based and space technology of solar research. Space astronomy started in 19v in the United States when W. Von Braun�??s A4 rocket engines became available to scientists for launching free-flying, high-altitude observatories carrying spectrometers, imagers, coronagraphs or in situ instruments for the detection of charged particles over a wide energy range. Since then much progress has been made in solar observational techniques from space. By observations from space new wavelength regimes became accessible. Therefore EUV and X-ray instrumentation as well as in situ instruments for particle detection have primarily been chosen to equip previous space projects. Recent results from space missions like YOHKOH, SOHO or TRACE as well as ground-based observations clearly indicate that physical processes of most solar phenomena take place on small scales which are still below the resolution of the instruments employed. There is an urgent need for observations at higher resolution and also for their extension to multi-wavelength regimes. Space-borne as well as ground-based instruments have limitations of the present-day technology although in a different way. In this communication, an overview of space instruments currently in operation or in the preparation phase is presented and references to more detailed information are given.The scientific goals and the instrumentation technologies of the missions Solar-B, Stereo, Sunrise, SDO and Solar Orbiter will be described.

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