The European Space Agency (ESA) launched the satellite Proba-2 on November 2, 2009. Proba-2 is a solar observatory. It has many novel devices and science instruments using new technologies. Mission contributions have come from Canada and all over Europe, especially Belgium. The ground station is located in Brussels, Belgium.

Proba-2 has experimental payloads and 4 new instruments to study the sun and space weather. Two are solar monitoring instruments. One is called SWAP (Sun Watcher using APS detectors and imaging Processing), a full space telescope the size of a wide shoebox. It’s a full space weather instrument to detect all significant solar events like solar flares or coronal mass ejections. Another team handles the LYRA (Lyman Alpha Radiometer) instrument. It uses robust ultraviolet detectors made of diamonds to measure solar radiation.

It has many different subsystems that have been turned on one-by-one and checked before it began working. The first images were solar observations that showed magnetized bands and surface structure.

Proba-2 has Czech-made instruments that study space weather that can damage satellites, harm unprotected astronauts, and affect ground-based electrical infrastructure. It may reveal how the sun’s activity can influence Earth’s ionosphere. The Dual Segmented Langmuir Probe (DSLP) and the Thermal Plasma Measurement Unit (TPMU) will probe the nearby surroundings of the satellite.