SDO is designed to help us understand the Sun's influence on Earth and Near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously.
November 20, 2008 - Under the Lens: Investigating the Sun's Mysteries
Sometime around 2012, the waxing 11-year solar cycle once again will reach its peak. Between now and then, magnetically turbulent sunspots, spawned by some still mysterious process, will form near the poles in increasing numbers and migrate toward the Sun's faster-rotating equator in pairs of opposite polarity.