View allAll Photos Tagged SDO
Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 19-Feb-22 (DeNoise AI).
With additional 'Flying together with Swissair' titles.
First flown in Sep-75, this aircraft was delivered to SABENA Belgian World Airlines as OO-SDO in Dec-75. The B737-200 fleet was sold to European Aviation in May-98 and leased back to SABENA.
After 25 years in service with SABENA it was returned to European Aviation as G-CEAJ in Nov-00. It was leased to a subsidiary company, European Aviation Air Charter in Dec-00.
In May-05 the aircraft was wet-leased to Palmair European Airlines (see below) and returned to European Aviation Air Charter in Oct-05. In Nov-05 it was wet-leased to another European Aviation subsidiary, OzJet Airlines Pty Ltd (Australia) for the Australian summer season, returning to European Aviation Air Charter in Mar-06.
The aircraft was leased to OzJet again, as VH-OZX in Oct-06. After 34 years in service it was withdrawn from use and stored at Perth, WA in May-09. It was sold to Heavylift Cargo Airlines Pty Ltd in Jun-09 and very quickly sold on to Wells Fargo Bank Northwest (USA) as N737HL. It remained stored at Perth and never flew again.
In Feb-10 the aircraft was sold to Red Cloud Assets LLC. and remained stored for another nine years until it was dismantled at Perth in Mar-19. It was moved by road to White Gum Air Park, near York, WA, about 70km east of Perth and reassembled for display.
Note: Palmair European was a UK based Inclusive Tour Operator on behalf of Bath Travel, Bournemouth, UK. They became famous for their personal touch. The owner of Bath Travel used to be at the airport to meet & greet passengers on departure.
Caption: This is an image of magnetic loops on the sun, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). It has been processed to highlight the edges of each loop to make the structure more clear. A series of loops such as this is known as a flux rope, and these lie at the heart of eruptions on the sun known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs.) This is the first time scientists were able to discern the timing of a flux rope's formation. (Blended 131 Angstrom and 171 Angstrom images of July 19, 2012 flare and CME.)
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/SDO
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On July 18, 2012, a fairly small explosion of light burst off the lower right limb of the sun. Such flares often come with an associated eruption of solar material, known as a coronal mass ejection or CME – but this one did not. Something interesting did happen, however. Magnetic field lines in this area of the sun's atmosphere, the corona, began to twist and kink, generating the hottest solar material – a charged gas called plasma – to trace out the newly-formed slinky shape. The plasma glowed brightly in extreme ultraviolet images from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) aboard NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and scientists were able to watch for the first time the very formation of something they had long theorized was at the heart of many eruptive events on the sun: a flux rope.
Eight hours later, on July 19, the same region flared again. This time the flux rope's connection to the sun was severed, and the magnetic fields escaped into space, dragging billions of tons of solar material along for the ride -- a classic CME.
"Seeing this structure was amazing," says Angelos Vourlidas, a solar scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. "It looks exactly like the cartoon sketches theorists have been drawing of flux ropes since the 1970s. It was a series of figure eights lined up to look like a giant slinky on the sun." To read more about this new discovery go to: 1.usa.gov/14UHsTt
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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NASA image captured April 2, 2011
Twice a year, SDO enters an eclipse season where the spacecraft slips behind Earth for up to 72 minutes a day. Unlike the crisp shadow one sees on the sun during a lunar eclipse, Earth's shadow has a variegated edge due to its atmosphere, which blocks the sun light to different degrees depending on its density. Also, light from brighter spots on the sun may make it through, which is why some solar features extend low into Earth's shadow.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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This Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) image of the Sun taken on January 20, 2012 in extreme ultraviolet light captures a heart-shaped dark coronal hole. Coronal holes are areas of the Sun's surface that are the source of open magnetic field lines that head way out into space. They are also the source regions of the fast solar wind, which is characterized by a relatively steady speed of approximately 800 km/s (about 1.8 million mph).
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Sabena
Boeing 737-229/Adv
OO-SDO (cn 21177/433)
Photographed at Brussels - National (Zaventem) / Melsbroek (BRU / EBBR / EBMB)
Belgium.
NASA image captured October 7, 2010
View a video of this event here: www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/5099028189
This was a first for SDO and it was visually engaging too. On October 7, 2010, SDO observed its first lunar transit when the new Moon passed directly between the spacecraft (in its geosynchronous orbit) and the Sun. With SDO watching the Sun in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light, the dark Moon created a partial eclipse of the Sun.
These images, while unusual and cool to see, have practical value to the SDO science team. Karel Schrijver of Lockheed-Martin's Solar and Astrophysics Lab explains: "The very sharp edge of the lunar limb allows us to measure the in-orbit characteristics of the telescope e.g., light diffraction on optics and filter support grids. Once these are characterized, we can use that information to correct our data for instrumental effects and sharpen up the images to even more detail."
To learn more about SDO go to: sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Credit: NASA/SDO
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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This still SDO image was created by applying additional processing to enhance the structures visible. While there is no scientific value to this processing, it does result in a beautiful, new way of looking at the sun. The original frames are in the 171 Angstrom wavelength of extreme ultraviolet. This wavelength shows plasma in the solar atmosphere, called the corona, that is around 600,000 Kelvin. The loops represent plasma held in place by magnetic fields. They are concentrated in "active regions" where the magnetic fields are the strongest. These active regions usually appear in visible light as sunspots. The events in this video represent 24 hours of activity on September 25, 2011.
To download the full length video (and or more stills) go to: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?10990
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Image caption: This collage of solar images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows how observations of the sun in different wavelengths helps highlight different aspects of the sun's surface and atmosphere. (The collage also includes images from other SDO instruments that display magnetic and Doppler information.) Credit: NASA/SDO/Goddard Space Flight Center
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Taking a photo of the sun with a standard camera will provide a familiar image: a yellowish, featureless disk, perhaps colored a bit more red when near the horizon since the light must travel through more of Earth's atmosphere and consequently loses blue wavelengths before getting to the camera's lens. The sun, in fact, emits light in all colors, but since yellow is the brightest wavelength from the sun, that is the color we see with our naked eye -- which the camera represents, since one should never look directly at the sun. When all the visible colors are summed together, scientists call this “white light.”
Specialized instruments, either in ground-based or space-based telescopes, however, can observe light far beyond the ranges visible to the naked eye. Different wavelengths convey information about different components of the sun's surface and atmosphere, so scientists use them to paint a full picture of our constantly changing and varying star. To read more go to: 1.usa.gov/10uIAJm
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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NASA image captured June 5, 2012.
On June 5-6 2012, SDO is collecting images of one of the rarest predictable solar events: the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This event happens in pairs eight years apart that are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years. The last transit was in 2004 and the next will not happen until 2117.
Credit: NASA/SDO, AIA
To read more about the 2012 Venus Transit go to: sunearthday.nasa.gov/transitofvenus
Add your photos of the Transit of Venus to our Flickr Group here: www.flickr.com/groups/venustransit/
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Caption: This is an image of magnetic loops on the sun, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). It has been processed to highlight the edges of each loop to make the structure more clear. A series of loops such as this is known as a flux rope, and these lie at the heart of eruptions on the sun known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs.) This is the first time scientists were able to discern the timing of a flux rope's formation. (SDO AIA 131 and 171 difference blended image of flux ropes during CME.)
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/SDO
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On July 18, 2012, a fairly small explosion of light burst off the lower right limb of the sun. Such flares often come with an associated eruption of solar material, known as a coronal mass ejection or CME – but this one did not. Something interesting did happen, however. Magnetic field lines in this area of the sun's atmosphere, the corona, began to twist and kink, generating the hottest solar material – a charged gas called plasma – to trace out the newly-formed slinky shape. The plasma glowed brightly in extreme ultraviolet images from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) aboard NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and scientists were able to watch for the first time the very formation of something they had long theorized was at the heart of many eruptive events on the sun: a flux rope.
Eight hours later, on July 19, the same region flared again. This time the flux rope's connection to the sun was severed, and the magnetic fields escaped into space, dragging billions of tons of solar material along for the ride -- a classic CME.
"Seeing this structure was amazing," says Angelos Vourlidas, a solar scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. "It looks exactly like the cartoon sketches theorists have been drawing of flux ropes since the 1970s. It was a series of figure eights lined up to look like a giant slinky on the sun." To read more about this new discovery go to: 1.usa.gov/14UHsTt
On August 31, 2012 a long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the sun's atmosphere, the corona, erupted out into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT. The coronal mass ejection, or CME, traveled at over 900 miles per second. The CME did not travel directly toward Earth, but did connect with Earth's magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, causing aurora to appear on the night of Monday, September 3.
The August 31 2012 coronal mass ejection shown in four different extreme ultraviolet wavelengths at 19:49 UT. Clockwise from upper left, the wavelengths are: 335, 171, 131, 304 angstroms.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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A beautiful prominence eruption shot off the east limb (left side) of the sun on Monday, April 16, 2012. Such eruptions are often associated with solar flares, and in this case an M1 class (medium-sized) flare did occur at the same time, though it was not aimed toward Earth. This event, which is still in progress, was seen by NASA’s SDO satellite.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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NASA image captured April 3-5, 2011
View a video of this event here: www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/5600413245/
Cascades of spiraling magnetic loops observed in extreme ultraviolet light by SDO danced and twisted above an active region on the Sun (Apr. 3-5, 2011). These loops are charged particles spinning along the magnetic field lines, and thus visually revealing them. The bright active region was fairly strong and the activity persistent, though not explosive. At one point darker plasma can be seen being pulled back and forth across the region's center.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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NASA image captured June 6, 2012.
On June 5-6 2012, SDO is collecting images of one of the rarest predictable solar events: the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This event happens in pairs eight years apart that are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years. The last transit was in 2004 and the next will not happen until 2117.
Credit: NASA/SDO, AIA
To read more about the 2012 Venus Transit go to: sunearthday.nasa.gov/transitofvenus
Add your photos of the Transit of Venus to our Flickr Group here: www.flickr.com/groups/venustransit/
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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This Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) image of the Sun taken on January 20, 2012 in extreme ultraviolet light captures a heart-shaped dark coronal hole. Coronal holes are areas of the Sun's surface that are the source of open magnetic field lines that head way out into space. They are also the source regions of the fast solar wind, which is characterized by a relatively steady speed of approximately 800 km/s (about 1.8 million mph).
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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NASA image captured April 1, 2011
Twice a year, SDO enters an eclipse season where the spacecraft slips behind Earth for up to 72 minutes a day. Unlike the crisp shadow one sees on the sun during a lunar eclipse, Earth's shadow has a variegated edge due to its atmosphere, which blocks the sun light to different degrees depending on its density. Also, light from brighter spots on the sun may make it through, which is why some solar features extend low into Earth's shadow.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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This still SDO image was created by applying additional processing to enhance the structures visible. While there is no scientific value to this processing, it does result in a beautiful, new way of looking at the sun. The original frames are in the 171 Angstrom wavelength of extreme ultraviolet. This wavelength shows plasma in the solar atmosphere, called the corona, that is around 600,000 Kelvin. The loops represent plasma held in place by magnetic fields. They are concentrated in "active regions" where the magnetic fields are the strongest. These active regions usually appear in visible light as sunspots. The events in this video represent 24 hours of activity on September 25, 2011.
To download the full length video (and or more stills) go to: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?10990
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Caption: This is an image of magnetic loops on the sun, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). It has been processed to highlight the edges of each loop to make the structure more clear. A series of loops such as this is known as a flux rope, and these lie at the heart of eruptions on the sun known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs.) This is the first time scientists were able to discern the timing of a flux rope's formation. (SDO AIA 131 and 171 difference blended image of flux ropes during CME.)
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/SDO
----
On July 18, 2012, a fairly small explosion of light burst off the lower right limb of the sun. Such flares often come with an associated eruption of solar material, known as a coronal mass ejection or CME – but this one did not. Something interesting did happen, however. Magnetic field lines in this area of the sun's atmosphere, the corona, began to twist and kink, generating the hottest solar material – a charged gas called plasma – to trace out the newly-formed slinky shape. The plasma glowed brightly in extreme ultraviolet images from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) aboard NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and scientists were able to watch for the first time the very formation of something they had long theorized was at the heart of many eruptive events on the sun: a flux rope.
Eight hours later, on July 19, the same region flared again. This time the flux rope's connection to the sun was severed, and the magnetic fields escaped into space, dragging billions of tons of solar material along for the ride -- a classic CME.
"Seeing this structure was amazing," says Angelos Vourlidas, a solar scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. "It looks exactly like the cartoon sketches theorists have been drawing of flux ropes since the 1970s. It was a series of figure eights lined up to look like a giant slinky on the sun." To read more about this new discovery go to: 1.usa.gov/14UHsTt
A small sunspot group, AR1416, quickly mushroomed into a substantial sunspot group in less than 2.5 days (Feb. 9-11, 2012). For a rough size comparison, the larger, more developed spots are larger than Earth.
Credit: NASA/SDO/HMI
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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NASA image captured July 12, 2011
A stalk-like prominence rose up above the Sun, then split into roughly four strands, that twisted themselves into a knot and dispersed over a two-hour period (July 12, 2011). As the close-up shows (in two wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light), the effect is one of airy gracefulness. This clip also underscores the value from SDO of being able to view motion with an image taken every 10 seconds.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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AIA 94 ]
This was grabbed while SDO was doing an Eve Cruciform, which involves calibration maneuvers, "nodding SDO up, down, back, and forth to allow EVE to look at how the instrument is behaving." I actually hadn't seen that this was scheduled, so when I glanced at the data, as I often do, for a moment I wondered, quite simply, WTF?! ;) Some sort of calibration was an easy fast guess, but fun to witness nonetheless, and I downloaded a number of (at least I thought) cool images, again including this one. Anyway, SDO needs to "keep the instruments in excellent shape."
Thank you, as always, for stopping by, and again, Happy 2014. Prost.
The Sun unleashed a large X class (strongest category) flare late on Sept. 7 and into early Sept. 8, 2011. The images were taken in extreme ultraviolet (UV) light from SDO. The video clip (here: www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/6163555255 ) presents the flash of the flare and a mass of ejecta that rose above the Sun, some of which fell back to the surface. However, other instruments from SOHO and STEREO showed a large mass of particles rushing out into space. Flares emit a great deal of radiation, but this is not captured in this wavelength of light. The brightness of this flare caused very bright saturation and 'blooming' above and below the flare region on the CCD detector and caused extended diffraction patterns to spread out.
Credit: NASA/SDO
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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A detail view of a filament launch in the SDO AIA 304 band.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SVS/SDO
To read more about this animation go to: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/news/first-light.html
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe.
NASA image captured January 28, 2011
This still from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) caught the action in freeze-frame splendor when the Sun popped off two events at once on Jan. 28, 2011. A filament on the left side became unstable and erupted, while an M-1 flare (mid-sized) and a Coronal Mass Ejection on the right blasted into space. The movie here (and here), taken Jan. 26-28, 2011, shows several other flashes and bursts from the active region on the right as well. Neither event is headed towards Earth.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Images taken immediately after the AIA CCD cameras cooled on March 30, 2010.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO
To read more about this image go to: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/news/first-light.html
To learn more about the SDO mission, visit: www.nasa.gov/sdo
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) scientists used their computer models to generate a view of the Sun's magnetic field on August 10, 2018. The bright active region right at the central area of the Sun clearly shows a concentration of field lines, as well as the small active region at the Sun's right edge, but to a lesser extent. Magnetism drives the dynamic activity near the Sun's surface.
Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Solar Dynamics Observatory
November 3, 2011
The sun sent out two different kinds of solar activity last night in different directions. One was an X 1.9 class flare (seen above) that burst out from an active region on the sun, numbered AR1339, which just rounded over the left side of the sun into Earth's view. That flare began at 3:27 PM ET on November 3, 2011 and triggered some disruption to radio communications on Earth beginning about 45 minutes later. Scientists are continuing to watch this active region as it could well produce additional solar activity as it passes across the front of the sun.
The second eruption (seen here: www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/6312678466/) was a coronal mass ejection (CME), beginning about 8:45 PM ET that came from a different region, bursting off the backside of the sun. That CME is one of the brightest seen so far this solar cycle, and it is headed in the direction of Venus. NASA is able to track such solar activity in all directions, due to a heliophysics fleet of spacecraft watching the sun from all sides –in particular, the two Solar Terrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft now sit on opposite sides of the sun providing an entire 360 degree view of solar activity.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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This image shows an approximative comparison between the Earth and the Sun. The Sun is about 109 times the size of the Earth.
This rough comparison shows the size of an eruption on March 4, 2023.
The solar eruption took place in the southern hemisphere of the Sun, at around -20 degrees.
In this image, the northern hemisphere is on the left and the southern hemisphere on the right.
Image cropping - this image is in false colors. SDO give a red filter to AIA304 filter.
Observed by SDO on March 4, 2023 at a wavelength of 304 A.
The wavelength is ultraviolet, allowing us to observe helium losing two electrons.
The temperature oscillates between 40,000 and 60,000 degrees.
Sun credit : NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.
Sun is in UV
Earth credit : JAXA/ISAS/PSI/Thomas Thomopoulos
Earth is in visible light
Edition, cropping and composition with Earth : Thomas Thomopoulos
Visualisation of SDO image with Jhelioviewer
The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) instrument, one of three instruments on board NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), is making precise measurements of the solar limb to study the shape of the Sun.
Twice a year, the SDO spacecraft performs a 360 degree roll about the spacecraft-sun line. This roll maneuver allows us to remove the instrument optical distortions from the solar images taken by HMI to precisely determine the solar limb.
Our Sun is the most perfect sphere in the solar system and thanks to the high resolution observations of the HMI instrument, solar scientist can measure if the Sun's sphere is changing over time as a result of the solar cycle. On April 4, 2012 SDO performed its 6th roll and the accumulated data is being studied and reviewed and will later be published in a paper.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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NASA image captured April 3, 2011
Twice a year, SDO enters an eclipse season where the spacecraft slips behind Earth for up to 72 minutes a day. Unlike the crisp shadow one sees on the sun during a lunar eclipse, Earth's shadow has a variegated edge due to its atmosphere, which blocks the sun light to different degrees depending on its density. Also, light from brighter spots on the sun may make it through, which is why some solar features extend low into Earth's shadow.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Caption: This movie shows two coronal mass ejections (CMEs) erupting from the sun on Jan. 23, 2013. The first was not directed at Earth; the second one is, but is not expected to have a strong impact. The movie was captured by the joint ESA/NASA mission the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), beginning at 7 p.m. EST on Jan. 22 and ending at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 23.
Credit: ESA, NASA/SOHO/Goddard Space Flight Center
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On Jan. 23, 2013, at 9:55 a.m. EST, the sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection, or CME. Experimental NASA research models, based on observations from the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) and ESA/NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, show that the CME left the sun at speeds of around 375 miles per second, which is a fairly typical speed for CMEs.
Not to be confused with a solar flare, a CME is a solar phenomenon that can send solar particles into space and reach Earth one to three days later.
Earth-directed CMEs can cause a space weather phenomenon called a geomagnetic storm, which occurs when they connect with the outside of the Earth's magnetic envelope, the magnetosphere, for an extended period of time. In the past, CMEs of this speed have not caused substantial geomagnetic storms. They sometimes cause auroras near the poles but are unlikely to affect electrical systems on Earth or interfere with GPS or satellite-based communications systems.
A slightly slower CME that was not Earth-directed, also erupted earlier in the day.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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This visualization uses specific colors to describe which areas on the sun cooled or heated over a 12-hour period. The use of reds and yellows imply that higher temperatures dominated earlier in the time period, while lower temperatures dominated later, meaning that the area showed steady cooling over time, but any heating happened too quickly and impulsively to be measured. The image compares wavelength 211 (which shows material in the 2 million K range) to wavelength 171 (which shows material about ten times cooler).
Credit: NASA/Viall
To read more go to: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/colorful-science...
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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NASA image captured October 7, 2010
View a high res still here: www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/5099627080/
This was a first for SDO and it was visually engaging too. On October 7, 2010, SDO observed its first lunar transit when the new Moon passed directly between the spacecraft (in its geosynchronous orbit) and the Sun. With SDO watching the Sun in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light, the dark Moon created a partial eclipse of the Sun.
These images, while unusual and cool to see, have practical value to the SDO science team. Karel Schrijver of Lockheed-Martin's Solar and Astrophysics Lab explains: "The very sharp edge of the lunar limb allows us to measure the in-orbit characteristics of the telescope e.g., light diffraction on optics and filter support grids. Once these are characterized, we can use that information to correct our data for instrumental effects and sharpen up the images to even more detail."
To learn more about SDO go to: sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Credit: NASA/SDO
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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NASA image captured Feb. 14, 2011
Looks like the new solar cycle is beginning to ramp up. The sun emitted its first X-class flare in more than four years on February 14 at 8:56 p.m. EST.
X-class flares are the most powerful of all solar events that can trigger radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms.
This particular flare comes on the heels of a few M-class and several C-class flares over the past few days. It also has a CME associated with it that is traveling about 900 Km/second and is expected to reach Earth’s orbit on Feb. 16 at about 10 p.m. EST
Credit: NASA/SDO
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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The Fall 2011 eclipse season started on September 11, 2011. Here is an AIA 304 image from 0658 UT. SDO has eclipse seasons twice a year near each equinox. For three weeks near midnight Las Cruces time (about 0700 UT) our orbit has the Earth pass between SDO and the Sun. These eclipses can last up to 72 minutes in the middle of an eclipse season. The current eclipse season started on September 11 and lasts until October 4.
To read more about SDO go to: sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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NASA SDO image 7.26.14 -- lunar transit and a minor solar flare.
Happy Birthday, Steve!
Thank you NASA/SDO, and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams, for the wonderful data/resources.
NASA image captured January 28, 2011
This still from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) caught the action in freeze-frame splendor when the Sun popped off two events at once on Jan. 28, 2011. A filament on the left side became unstable and erupted, while an M-1 flare (mid-sized) and a Coronal Mass Ejection on the right blasted into space. The movie, taken Jan. 26-28, 2011, shows several other flashes and bursts from the active region on the right as well. Neither event is headed towards Earth.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Caption: The first of two coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on Jan. 23, 2013, can be seen erupting in the lower left portion of this image, from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. This CME was not Earth-directed. This image is what's known as a coronagraph, in which the bright light of the sun itself is blocked in order to better see the sun's atmosphere, the corona.
Credit: ESA, NASA/SOHO
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On Jan. 23, 2013, at 9:55 a.m. EST, the sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection, or CME. Experimental NASA research models, based on observations from the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) and ESA/NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, show that the CME left the sun at speeds of around 375 miles per second, which is a fairly typical speed for CMEs.
Not to be confused with a solar flare, a CME is a solar phenomenon that can send solar particles into space and reach Earth one to three days later.
Earth-directed CMEs can cause a space weather phenomenon called a geomagnetic storm, which occurs when they connect with the outside of the Earth's magnetic envelope, the magnetosphere, for an extended period of time. In the past, CMEs of this speed have not caused substantial geomagnetic storms. They sometimes cause auroras near the poles but are unlikely to affect electrical systems on Earth or interfere with GPS or satellite-based communications systems.
A slightly slower CME that was not Earth-directed, also erupted earlier in the day.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Caption: This is a video of magnetic loops on the sun, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. It has been processed to highlight the edges of each loop to make the structure more clear. A series of loops such as this is known as a flux rope, and these lie at the heart of eruptions on the sun known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs.) This is the first time scientists were able to discern the timing of a flux rope's formation. (Blended 131 and 171 angstrom light view of flux rope formation and eruption.)
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/SDO
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On July 18, 2012, a fairly small explosion of light burst off the lower right limb of the sun. Such flares often come with an associated eruption of solar material, known as a coronal mass ejection or CME – but this one did not. Something interesting did happen, however. Magnetic field lines in this area of the sun's atmosphere, the corona, began to twist and kink, generating the hottest solar material – a charged gas called plasma – to trace out the newly-formed slinky shape. The plasma glowed brightly in extreme ultraviolet images from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) aboard NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and scientists were able to watch for the first time the very formation of something they had long theorized was at the heart of many eruptive events on the sun: a flux rope.
Eight hours later, on July 19, the same region flared again. This time the flux rope's connection to the sun was severed, and the magnetic fields escaped into space, dragging billions of tons of solar material along for the ride -- a classic CME.
"Seeing this structure was amazing," says Angelos Vourlidas, a solar scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. "It looks exactly like the cartoon sketches theorists have been drawing of flux ropes since the 1970s. It was a series of figure eights lined up to look like a giant slinky on the sun." To read more about this new discovery go to: 1.usa.gov/14UHsTt
NASA image captured March 2-4, 2011.
NASA's SDO satellite captured the moon passing infront of the sun.
View a hd video of this event here: www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/5497274056
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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The changes of a coronal cell region as solar rotation carries it across the solar disk as seen with NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft. The camera is fixed on the region (panning with it) and shows the plumes changing to cells and back to plumes again -- based on the observatory's perspective -- during the interval June 7-14, 2011.
To read more about this event go to: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/solar-plumes.html
Credit: NASA/GSFC/STEREO
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Rotated view (east is up) of the huge solar ejection during the early morning hours of June 7, 2011 as seen by SDO's AIA 304 assembly. The scale size of Earth is at upper left.
Courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams. Edited by J. Major.
Watch a video of this at www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UnPYE7dvzg
Read more at lightsinthedark.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/solar/