A joint Japanese–ESA–US satellite for solar observation, known as Solar-B before its launch into polar orbit around the Earth in 2006 September. Its prime purpose is to study the generation and development of solar magnetic fields and the dissipation of their energy in flares, coronal mass ejections, and coronal heating. It carries an 0.5-m Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) observing in the 388–668 nm range, an Extreme-ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) observing in the wavelength ranges 17–21 nm and 25–29 nm, and a high-resolution grazing-incidence X-Ray Telescope (XRT) observing between 0.2 and 20 nm. Hinode was a successor to the Japanese Yohkoh solar observatory.

http://hinode.nao.ac.jp/index_e.shtml Hinode science centre website.

http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/enterp/missions/hinode/index.shtml Mission website at Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.