The SDO is the first of its kind spacecraft designed to study the sun, the agency said.
It is expected to unlock the processes inside the sun, on its surface, and in its corona that result in solar variability which when experienced on earth, is called space weather.
The five-year mission will disclose the sun’s inner workings by constantly taking high resolution images, collecting readings from its inside and measuring its magnetic field activity.
It “will determine how the sun’s magnetic field is generated, structured and converted into violent solar events like turbulent solar wind, solar flares and coronal mass ejections,” according to the agency.
This data is expected to help researchers predict solar storms and other activity on the sun that can affect spacecraft in orbit.