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One of the signs explaining the Solar Dynamics Observatory. It reads

SDO: Solar Dynamics Observatory

The Solar Dynamics Observatory, the first mission to be launched for NASA's Living with a Star program, is designed to understand the causes of solar variability and its impacts on earth.

SDO will help us better understand the sun's influence on earth and near-earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time in many wavelengths simultaneously.

SDO's goal it to understand, driving towards a predictive capability, the solar variations that influence life on Earth and humanity's technological systems by determining:

• How the Sun's magnetic field is generated and structured
• How this stored magnetic energy is converted and released into the heliosphere and geospace in the form of solar wind, energetic particles, and variations in the solar irradiance.

USA: SA Cells • HGA primary • HMI primary • Propulsion tanks • EVE Primary • ECRA • PSE • Main engine • Rotary joints for waveguides • SDO test and integration • SDO build • Gimbal actuators • AIA primary telescopes • AIA optics • AIA and HMI flight processors • Great Britain: Lithium ion batteries • AIA and HMI CCDs • Camera electronics • Fill and drain valves • Germany: LVDS cable • Canada: HMI Michelson interferometers • Japan: Lithium ion battery cells • France: Optical gratings (AIA optics) • Italy: Star tracker (ACS) • Ground systems antenna • And that ... is the story of SDO around the world