The Japanese-led solar observatory launched in 2006 is Hinode.
Hinode, meaning “Sunrise” in Japanese, is a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency mission developed with contributions from NASA and the United Kingdom. It launched on 22 September 2006 aboard the final M-V rocket from Uchinoura Space Center in Japan; in Japan local time, the launch occurred on 23 September.
The spacecraft was designed to investigate the Sun’s magnetic fields and how they drive explosive events such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections. Its Solar Optical Telescope provides detailed visible-light observations, while its X-ray Telescope and EUV Imaging Spectrometer examine the hot solar atmosphere.
Hinode was formerly known as Solar-B and followed Japan’s Yohkoh, or Solar-A, mission. Yohkoh is therefore a plausible distractor, but it was the earlier mission rather than the 2006 observatory. Hinode’s near-continuous observations are enabled by its Sun-synchronous orbit, which keeps it near the day–night terminator.